Chapter 1. General Provisions of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 102. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 1.

Each live birth, fetal death, death, and marriage that occurs in the state shall be registered as provided in this part on the prescribed certificate forms. In addition, a report of every judgment of dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or nullity decree shall be filed with the State Registrar, as provided in this part. All confidential information included in birth, fetal death, death, and marriage certificates and reports of dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or nullity that are required to be filed by this part, shall be exempt from the California Public Records Act contained in Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.

The department is charged with the uniform and thorough enforcement of this part throughout the state, and may adopt additional regulations for its enforcement.

The State Registrar shall adopt regulations specifying both of the following:
  (a) Procedures to assure the confidentiality of the confidential portion of the certificate of live birth, specified in subdivision (b) of Section 102425, and the medical and health report, specified in Section 102445.
  (b) Procedures regarding access to records required by this part.

The department may make and enforce regulations for the embalming, cremation, interment, disinterment and transportation of the dead in matters relating to communicable diseases.

The State Registrar shall inform all local registrars which diseases are to be considered infectious, contagious, or communicable and dangerous to the public health, as decided by the department, in order that when deaths occur in which the diseases are involved, proper precautions may be taken to prevent their spread.

All certificates of live birth, fetal death, or death shall be written legibly, in durable black ink, and a certificate is not complete and correct that does not supply all of the items of information called for, or satisfactorily account for their omission.

All marriage licenses shall be written legibly and shall be photographically and micrographically reproducible. A marriage license is not complete and correct that does not supply all of the items of information called for, or satisfactorily account for their omission.

(a) All physicians, informants, funeral directors, clergy, or judges and all other persons having knowledge of the facts, shall supply upon the prescribed forms any information that they possess regarding any birth, fetal death, death, or marriage upon demand of the state or local registrar.
  (b) All physicians, informants, funeral directors, clergy, judges, public employees, or other persons who supply upon prescribed forms information that they possess regarding any birth, fetal death, death, or marriage shall in no case use a derogatory, demeaning, or colloquial racial or ethnic descriptor.

No alteration or change in any respect shall be made on any marriage license or certificate after its acceptance for registration by the local registrar, or on other records made in pursuance of this part, except where supplemental information required for statistical purposes is furnished.

Every person in charge of a hospital or other institution to which persons are admitted for treatment or confinement shall make a record of the personal, medical and other information for each patient sufficient and adequate for the completion of a birth or death certificate.

"Absence of conflicting information relative to parentage" as used in Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 102625) or Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 103225) includes entries such as "unknown," "not given," "refused to state," or "obviously fictitious names."