Bill would move medical examiner’s office
The University of Central Oklahoma could be the home of the medical examiner’s office under a bill that passed a Senate subcommittee this morning. Senate Bill 1337 would move the office from its current location near the OU Health Science Center to UCO’s Forensic Science Institute.
Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Oklahoma City, filed the bill in hopes that a change in location would help improve the troubled office.
“We’re hoping this would get the office on the right track,” Sykes said.
The office, which performs autopsies for criminal and civil cases, lost its accreditation in June and has been embroiled in controversy since last year.
Yesterday, Chief Medical Examiner Collie Trant was placed on administrative leave for “concerns raised during a closed executive session.”
Sykes says efforts to move the office have been in discussion for several months are not a result of recent troubles at the office.
“We’re hoping this will be a real shot in the arm for them,” he said.
The bill will now go to the full committee for consideration.
– Julie Bisbee
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Comments
No one should have the right to deny someone else from viewing information of how a loved one died. If state lawmakers are so worried about graphics why don’t they start by taking some of the graphic violence and sexual overtones children are subjected to on primetime TV????? Let me worry about how I will handle information of how one of my Loved one dies. I paid for the Medical Examiner to perform his/her duty therefore I demand to keep the right to the decide whether I view the information or not.
This move is a mistake. Forensic medicine is *medicine* first and foremost, and benefits greatly from being near an academic medicine facility. Moving to a forensic science unit removes it from the basis of its competence and into the realm of criminalistics, where it does not belong.
Being associated with an academic medical facility allows Medical Examiners to get better consults on cases that involve public health and in investigations that reveal natural disease. It is a profound benefit to be able to easily get consults from their clinical colleagues. It is important to have access to a medical library. Giving all this up in order to look good in a political sense and centralize political control is a mistake.