Coroners Amendment Bill Allows Non-Coroner to Classify Cause of Death as Natural Causes
November 17, 2022
PHOTO: Jason Oxenham
Northern Forensic Pathology Service clinical director Dr Simon Stables told the justice select committee in October the amendment was “flawed” and would not make any difference to the workflow of coroners.
“It is true some deaths cannot be determined, in terms of cause of death and that’s even after a full post-mortem. Those deaths are well less than 5 per cent of all deaths,” Stables said.
“To institute a policy or especially legislation that allows a non-medical person - that is, a coroner - to determine the cause of death without adequate death investigation, without a post-mortem, just because on the surface it seems as if the person died of natural causes, I think is a very slippery slope down. This is a dangerous practice.”
In his 27 years of experience as a forensic pathologist, Stables said many deaths that appeared to be from natural causes turned out to be from trauma or drug toxicity, either suicide or accidental.