3705.22 Birth certificate to be amended to correct errors. - Ohio Statutes

3705.22 Birth certificate to be amended to correct errors.

Whenever it is alleged that the facts stated in any birth, fetal death, or death record filed in the department of health are not true, the director may require satisfactory evidence to be presented in the form of affidavits, amended records, or certificates to establish the alleged facts. When established, the original record or certificate shall be supplemented by the affidavit or the amended certificate or record information.

An affidavit in a form prescribed by the director shall be sworn to by a person having personal knowledge of the matter sought to be corrected. Medical certifications contained on fetal death or death records may be corrected only by the person whose name appears on the original record as attending physician or by the coroner of the county in which the death occurred.

The amended birth record shall be signed by the person who attended the birth and the informant or informants whose names appear on the original record. The amended death or fetal death record shall be signed by the physician or coroner, funeral director, and informant whose names appear on the original record.

An affidavit or amended record for the correction of the given name of a person shall have the signature of the person, if the person is age eighteen or older, or of both parents if the person is under eighteen, except that in the case of a child born out of wedlock, the mother’s signature will suffice; in the case of the death or incapacity of either parent, the signature of the other parent will suffice; in the case of a child not in the custody of his parents, the signature of the guardian or agency having the custody of the child will suffice; and in the case of a child whose parents are deceased, the signature of another person who knows the child will suffice.

Once a correction or amendment of an item is made on a vital record, that item shall not be corrected or amended again except on the order of a court of this state or the request of a court of another state or jurisdiction.

The director may refuse to accept an affidavit or amended certificate or record that appears to be submitted for the purpose of falsifying the certificate or record.

A certified copy of a certificate or record issued by the department of health shall show the information as originally given and the corrected information, except that an electronically produced copy need indicate only that the certificate or record was corrected and the item that was corrected.

Effective Date: 03-16-1989