CORONER TO STAY FOR NOW

The Missouri General Assembly has approved a bill that would allow Cape Girardeau County to keep its coroner position after Jan. 1. The county assumes first-class status at the first of the year, and that change ordinarily would have required the hiring of a medical examiner to determine causes of death when a doctor isn't present.

The issue is one of money: the county pays a coroner $20,000, while a medical examiner would earn upward of $150,000.

Apparently, Cape Girardeau County isn't the first to receive an exemption on the medical examiner law. Perhaps the Legislature should consider changing the law instead of merely granting exceptions.

Down the road, the county may want to consider reinstating the medical examiner position by teaming up with other counties to share costs and resources.

Currently all autopsies are done in Farmington or St. Louis. Cape Girardeau County typically orders 15 to 20 per year at a cost of just over $2,000 each. Autopsies are mandatory in cases of violent death, and state law requires investigations of all deaths involving children 18 and under with no known critical health problems. A trained pathologist here could perform autopsies for not only Cape Girardeau County, but many other Southeast Missouri counties.

The exemption makes sense as the county feels its way into first-class status. But it is certainly a matter the county should revisit a few years down the road.