1131

Within a period of thirty (30) days computed from the date on which the birth of a human being has occurred, the declaration thereof shall be made before any keeper of the Vital Statistics Registry, to whom a birth certificate shall be delivered for its due registration in the manner hereinafter provided.\nWhen the declaration is made in a municipality other than that in which the birth occurred, it is the obligation of the Demographic Registry and Vital Statistics Division of the Department of Health to send said declaration to the keeper of the Vital Statistics Registry of the municipality where the birth occurred for its recording in the proper local registry within five (5) days following the date of its receipt. The medical-hospital institution shall be under the obligation to notify the Vital Statistics Registry corresponding to the municipality in which it is located the births occurring in the same within a term of ten (10) days after the last day of the month in which the birth occurred.\nIn those cases in which the place of birth is not an institution, the person attending the birth shall be under the obligation to notify the Vital Statistics Registry within the term

birth occurred.\nIn those cases in which the place of birth is not an institution, the person attending the birth shall be under the obligation to notify the Vital Statistics Registry within the term previously stated.\nWhen a birth occurs in an airplane or vessel while navigating and the child is removed from the vessel in any of the municipalities in Puerto Rico, the birth shall be registered in that municipality, but the birth certificate shall indicate the place where the birth occurred as far as it can be determined.\nThe requirement of birth declaration and registration as provided by this chapter shall be of obligatory and universal application in view of the compelling interest of the Commonwealth to ensure the protection of the rights of all the persons born within its jurisdiction. The Commonwealth shall not recognize any excuse or exemption from its compliance.\nHistory —Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24, p. 228, § 17; Apr. 16, 1952, No. 41, p. 96, § 1; May 25, 1961, No. 19, p. 49, § 1; Feb. 23, 1978, No. 1, p. 3, § 1; Aug. 15, 2007, No. 111, § 1.