Tasmanian Consolidated Acts

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES REGISTRATION ACT 1999 - SECT 3

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears –

"adult" means a person who is aged 18 years or older or, although under that age, is or has been married;

"authorised celebrant" means an authorised celebrant under the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth, as amended;

"birth" means the expulsion or extraction of a child from its mother;

"birth registration statement" means the statement referred to in section 13;

"change" of name includes an addition, omission or substitution;

"child" includes a stillborn child;

"corresponding law" means a law of another State that provides for the registration of births, deaths and marriages;

"death" does not include a stillbirth;

"disposal" of human remains means –

(a) cremation of the remains; or

(b) burial of the remains, including burial at sea; or

(c) placing the remains in a mausoleum or other permanent resting place; or

(d) placing the remains in the custody of an educational or scientific institution for the purpose of medical education or research; or

(e) removal of the remains from the State (but not if the remains have been cremated or are taken from the State by sea and buried at sea in the course of the voyage);

"doctor" means a person registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical Practitioners Registration Act 1996;

"funeral director" means a person who carries on the business of arranging for the disposal of human remains;

"midwife" means a midwife within the meaning of the Nursing Act 1995;

"prohibited name" means a name that –

(a) is obscene or offensive; or

(b) could not practicably be established by repute or usage –

(i) because it is too long; or

(ii) because it consists of or includes symbols without phonetic significance; or

(iii) for some other reason; or

(c) includes or resembles an official title or rank; or

(d) is contrary to the public interest for some other reason;

"recognition certificate" means a certificate that –

(a) is issued under a law of another State that recognises that a person who has undergone sexual reassignment surgery may have changed sex; and

(b) is issued in respect of a person who, having undergone sexual reassignment surgery, has changed sex; and

(c) states the sex of that person as so changed;

"Register" means the Register referred to in section 40;

"registering authority" means an authority responsible under a corresponding law for the registration of births, deaths and marriages;

"registrable event" means a birth, change of name, death, marriage or adoption;

"registrable information" means information that must or may be included in the Register;

"Registrar" means the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages;

"regulations" means regulations made and in force under this Act;

"sexual reassignment surgery" means a surgical procedure involving the alteration of a person's reproductive organs carried out –

(a) for the purpose of assisting the person to be considered to be a member of the opposite sex; or

(b) to correct or eliminate ambiguities relating to the sex of the person;

"State" includes a Territory;

"stillbirth" means the birth of a stillborn child;

"stillborn child" means a child of at least 20 weeks' gestation or, if it cannot be reliably established whether the period of gestation is more or less than 20 weeks, with a body mass of at least 400 grams at birth, that exhibits no sign of respiration or heartbeat or other sign of life after birth.