Hon. Merle H. Phillips
315J Main Capitol Building
PO Box 202108
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2108

Re: Pennsylvania Death Certificate Database 

Dear Hon. Merle H. Phillips:
I would like you to consider the advantages of putting all of the death
certificates that the Commonwealth has been accumulating since 1906 into an
Internet accessible database. The benefits would be: 

1) The Division of Vital Records would be able to get away from the antiquated 
and costly process of searching and filling each and every request manually.
With few exceptions, each request could be filled at a staffer’s work station 
and in a fraction of the time, especially for the older death certificates
that must be searched for by date and county, because, as I understand it,
there is no index for them. 
2) Law enforcement and government agencies would be able to use this same 
database for identity verification much the same way the Social Security Death 
Master File is used to thwart identity theft of deceased persons. By punching 
in a name and birth date into the database search engine it can be instantly 
determined if an imposter has stolen a deceased person’s identity.
 
3) Genealogists, historians, professors, and researchers would be able utilize 
the information contained in these historical records in a way that is light 
years removed from the current limited access system.
 
While there are legitimate concerns about privacy there is, however, no 
practical reason to restrict public access to all of these records
indefinitely. Therefore, I propose that the death certificates that would be
accessible on-line by the public would have to be at least 50 years old.
Currently that would mean only the death certificates of persons who died
before 1957 would be made accessible on-line. As each year passes the next
year in line would be made accessible on-line to the public.
 
As part of this effort to bring Pennsylvania into the 21st Century I suggest
the adoption of an Electronic Death Registration System like those already in
use in California, New York, and several other states.
 
While there would be some start up costs I believe the Commonwealth would save
considerably more in the long run, government and law enforcement agencies
would have a powerful new weapon to combat identity theft and fraud, the
public would be much better served and easier access would allow far greater
use of these historic records by everyone than the current system could ever
allow.
 
I hope you can see the practical aspects in instituting a Pennsylvania Death
Certificate Database.
 
Sincerely Yours