As used in this article:

1. "Vital statistics" means records of birth, death, fetal death and data related thereto;

2. "System of vital statistics" means the registration, collection, preservation, amendment and certification of vital statistics records, and activities related thereto, including the tabulation, analysis and publication of statistical data derived from such records;

3. "Filing" means the presentation of a certificate, report or other record provided for in this article, of a birth, death, fetal death or adoption, for registration by the Commissioner of Health;

4. "Registration" means the acceptance by the Commissioner of Health and the incorporation in his or her official records of certificates, reports or other records provided for in this article, of births, deaths, fetal deaths or adoptions;

5. "Live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction from the mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached;

6. "Stillbirth" or "stillborn child" means a fetal death;

7. "Certificate of birth resulting in stillbirth" means a certificate issued to memorialize a stillborn child;

8. "Fetal death" means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception after the fetus has advanced to or beyond the twelfth week of uterogestation. The death is indicated by the fact that, after such expulsion or extraction, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles;

9. "Dead body" means an individual who is determined to be dead pursuant to the provisions of the Uniform Determination of Death Act;

10. "Final disposition" means the burial, interment, cremation, or other disposition of a dead body or fetus;

11. "Physician" means a person who is a member of the class of persons authorized to use the term "physician" pursuant to Section 725.2 of Title 59 of the Oklahoma Statutes;

12. "Institution" means any establishment, public or private, which provides inpatient medical, surgical or diagnostic care or treatment, or nursing, custodial or domiciliary care, to two or more unrelated individuals, or to which persons are committed by law;

13. "Disinterment" means the recovery of human remains by exhumation or disentombment. "Disinterment" does not include the raising and lowering of remains to accommodate two interments within a single grave and does not include the repositioning of an outside burial container that encroaches on adjoining burial space; and

14. "Minor correction" means fixing a scrivener's error, correcting an error in the spelling of a name or word of common knowledge, filling in an erroneous omission, deleting an erroneous addition, or something similar. To obtain a minor correction, an applicant shall provide clear and convincing evidence of an objective error that was knowable at or near the time the certificate was made.

Historical Data

Laws 1963, SB 26, c. 325, art. 3, § 301, emerg. eff. July 1, 1963; Amended by Laws 1986, HB 1230, c. 262, § 4, eff. November 1, 1986; Amended by Laws 2000, HB 2090, c. 52, § 6, emerg. eff. April 14, 2000 (superseded document available); Amended by Laws 2008, HB 2995, c. 187, § 1, eff. November 1, 2008 (superseded document available); Amended by Laws 2011, HB 1397, c. 105, § 4, eff. November 1, 2011 (superseded document available); Amended by Laws 2015, HB 1729, c. 37, § 2, eff. November 1, 2015 (superseded document available); Amended by Laws 2025, HB 1688, c. 58, § 1, emerg. eff. July 1, 2025 (superseded document available).