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Committee hears personal testimony and judicial concerns on S.210 to allow court access to autopsy reports
Summary
The Health & Welfare committee heard an anonymous mother's testimony about being denied her adult daughter's autopsy report and received detailed legal guidance from Chief Superior Judge Tom Zoney, who warned the bill's heir-at-law approach and an undefined "legitimate reason" standard could lead to uneven results and procedural gaps.
A Health & Welfare committee hearing on S.210 on Wednesday featured an emotional anonymous witness who urged lawmakers to provide a judicial avenue for families to obtain autopsy reports and a legal review from Chief Superior Judge Tom Zoney cautioning that the bill, as written, leaves substantive gaps.
An unidentified witness told the committee she lost her 40-year-old daughter in November 2021 and struggled to obtain the medical examiner's autopsy report because a former partner became the children's legal guardian. "Never did it occur to me that I, as her mother, would not have access to her report," the witness said, describing repeated contact with the medical examiner's office that stopped after parentage was legally determined.
Katie McLennan of the Office of Legislative Counsel framed the measure as creating a new…
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