(a) The chief medical examiner, upon receiving the bodies or notification of the availability of the bodies as provided in this chapter, shall distribute them among the medical, dental and anthropologic institutions of this state regularly chartered and in active operation as prescribed in §§ 68-4-102 - 68-4-109, and shall not give, sell or deliver any body to any other person, firm, society, association or corporation.(b) Bodies shall be distributed by the chief medical examiner to the institution that is closest to the location of the body and that has indicated a current need for bodies for the purposes authorized by this chapter.(c) The institution receiving any body shall bear all the expense incident to the transportation of the body from the institution where death occurred, and its delivery to the institution receiving it.Acts 1947, ch. 163, § 3; C. Supp. 1950, § 2569.10 (Williams, § 5379.3); T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 53-506; Acts 1984, ch. 525, § 5; 1990, ch. 598, § 5.
Tennessee Legal Code