Coroners Want Say on Organ Donation: Bill Would Pit Need for Evidence Against Transplant Waiting List
By Josh Jarman, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Sep. 6–Who speaks for the dead?
It’s a question that has Ohio county coroners and organ-donation officials at odds over legislation expected to be proposed in the Statehouse.
Coroners say they have a duty to ensure that the dead receive justice if a homicide case goes to trial. But that duty has to be balanced against the new life the deceased’s organs represent to someone waiting for a transplant.
The right to decide what’s best for the deceased would be taken out of the hands of local coroners and put into the realm of organ-procurement organizations under recent revisions to the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. The revisions have been enacted in 19 states.
Proponents, including Lifeline of Ohio, central Ohio’s organ-procurement organization, say the legislation merely establishes best practices that are needed in the state.
“This law would provide some written standard in code,” Lifeline’s CEO Kent Holloway said. “If I was a new coroner, I would take comfort in that.”
David Applegate, the Union County coroner and president-elect of the Ohio State Coroners Association, said that as written, the act goes too far in stripping one of the coroner’s essential duties.
“Under law, it is our authority to investigate an unexpected or criminal death,” Applegate said. “What is more important, finding a killer or giving someone the opportunity to live?”
Those two goals very rarely come into conflict, he said, but when they do, it is a coroner’s job to make the call, not an organ-donor group.
Joseph Prahlow, the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said this issue stretches across the country, as more state legislatures adopt the act.
The act does not differentiate between organ donation and tissue procurement, such as skin, bones or eyes, he said.
That’s a problem because sometimes the resources are not available to immediately and completely examine the tissue, which can be a major source of evidence in a criminal case.
When confronted by a coroner who hasn’t denied any organ donations and does not understand the need for the legislation, Holloway says a coroner is an elected official, and the next person in the office might not feel the same way.
He said it is Lifeline’s job to ensure greater access to organs by the people who need them, and passing some form of the act will do that. He hopes to see it introduced by the legislature sometime this month.
An average of one Ohioan dies every other day for want of a transplant, Holloway said.
Both sides agree that cooperation is the key to saving more lives through organ donation, but many coroners think it can end there.
“The legislation isn’t necessary,” Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said. “If all parties can come to an agreement, everyone’s needs get met.”
jjarman@dispatch.com
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