Iowa Code Title IV. Public Health [Chs. 123-158] § 142.3. Notification of department

Every county medical examiner, funeral director or embalmer, and the managing officer of every public asylum, hospital, county care facility, penitentiary, or reformatory, as soon as any dead body shall come into the person's custody which may be used for scientific purposes as provided in sections 142.1 and 142.2, shall at once notify the nearest relative or friend of the deceased, if known, and the department of health and human services, and hold such body unburied for forty-eight hours. Upon receipt of notification, the department shall issue verbal or written instructions relative to the disposition to be made of said body. Complete jurisdiction over said bodies is vested exclusively in the department of health and human services. No autopsy or post mortem, except as are legally ordered by county medical examiners, shall be performed on any of said bodies prior to their delivery to the medical schools.