Prerequisites to issuance of birth certificate; judicial review; missing child certificates; excluded information
Ind. Code § 16-37-1-8
in effectSec. 8. (a) Except as provided in section 7.5 of this chapter and subsection (d), a local health officer shall provide a certification of birth, death, or stillbirth registration upon request by any person only if:
(1) the health officer is satisfied that the applicant has a direct interest in the matter;
(2) the health officer determines that the certificate is necessary for the determination of personal or property rights or for compliance with state or federal law; and
(3) the applicant for a birth certificate presents at least one (1) form of identification.
However, the local health officer must issue a certificate of an applicant's own birth registration.
(b) A local health officer's decision whether or not to issue a certified copy of a birth certificate is subject to review by a court.
(c) A local health officer may issue a certification of birth, death, or stillbirth from the electronic registration systems in section 3.1 of this chapter, regardless of the location of the filing of the record.
(d) A local health officer may not issue a copy of a birth certificate of a missing child to which a notice has been attached under IC 10-13-5-11 without the authorization of the Indiana clearinghouse for information on missing children, missing veterans at risk, and missing endangered adults.
(e) Upon determination that a person may be provided a certification of death under subsection (a), the local health officer shall provide to the person a certification of death that excludes information concerning the cause of death if the person requests the exclusion of this information.
[Pre-1993 Recodification Citations: 16-1-16-18(a) part, (c), (d); 16-1-19-1.]
As added by P.L.2-1993, SEC.20. Amended by P.L.2-2003, SEC.55; P.L.123-2007, SEC.1; P.L.43-2009, SEC.16; P.L.147-2023, SEC.15; P.L.40-2024, SEC.24; P.L.33-2025, SEC.3.
Source: Open US Law by Vaquill AI (CC BY 4.0)URL: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/16Fetched: 10/17/2026