Any physician removing or otherwise acquiring any tissue of the human body may, in his discretion, after making or causing to be made such scientific examination of the same as he may deem appropriate or as may be required by law, custom or rules and regulations of the hospital or other institution in which the tissue may have been removed or acquired, authorize disposition of the same by incineration, cremation, burial or other sanitary method approved by the state board of health, unless he shall have been furnished prior to removal or acquisition of the tissue, or at any time prior to its disposal, a written request that the same be delivered to the patient or someone in his behalf or, if death has occurred, to the person claiming the dead body for burial or cremation. No such tissue shall be delivered, however, except as may be permitted by rules and regulations of the state board of health. Any hospital or other institution acquiring possession of any such tissue, and not having written instructions to the contrary from the attending physician, the patient or the person claiming a dead body for burial or cremation, or someone in their behalf, may immediately dispose of the same as hereinabove provided.

However, no external member of the human body may be so disposed of within forty-eight hours of its removal or acquisition unless consent thereto be obtained in writing from the patient or the person authorizing the medical or surgical treatment of the patient, and no dead foetus shall be so disposed of within the same period of time unless consent thereto be obtained in writing from the mother of the dead foetus or her spouse. For the purposes of this section, an external member of the human body is defined as an arm or one or more joints thereof, a hand, a finger or one or more joints thereof, a leg or one or more joints thereof, a foot, a toe or one or more joints thereof, an ear or the greater part thereof, or the nose or the greater part thereof. For the purposes of this section and the succeeding section, a dead foetus is defined as a product of human conception, exclusive of its placenta or connective tissue, which has suffered death prior to its complete expulsion or extraction from the mother, as established by the fact that after such expulsion or extraction the foetus 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.