New York Consolidated Laws, Public Health Law - PBH § 4306. Rights and duties at death

1. The donee may accept or reject the gift.  If the donee accepts a gift of the entire body, the donee may, subject to the terms of the gift, authorize embalming and the use of the body in funeral services.  If the gift is of a part of the body, the donee upon the death of the donor and prior to embalming, may cause the part to be removed without unnecessary mutilation.  After removal of the part, custody of the remainder of the body vests in the surviving spouse, next of kin, or other persons under obligation to dispose of the body.

2. When a donor is determined dead based on irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, the time of death shall be certified by a physician.  Such physician may not participate in the procedure to remove or transplant the body part.  In all other cases the time of death shall be certified by the physician who attends the donor at his death and one other physician, neither of whom shall participate in the procedure for removing or transplanting the part.

4. Any employee or agent of an organ procurement organization, eye bank or tissue bank acting pursuant to this article shall be held to the same standard of confidentiality as that imposed on employees of a hospital.