Indiana lawmakers to review requirements for coroner positions coroners

INDIANAPOLIS - The stunning coroner's error that switched the identities of two Taylor University students - one dead and one alive - has prompted Indiana lawmakers to reevaluate the state's standards for its coroners.\nState Sen. Pat Miller, R-Indianapolis, said she intends to seek legislation in next year's session to set higher standards for coroners.\nMiller said she is looking at both tightening qualifications on who can be elected coroner, and also improving training for coroners once they take office.\nUnder current Indiana law, there is only optional training for coroners and no state oversight. Even though coroners determine the cause of death and officially identify the dead, just about anyone can be elected coroner.\nThe only requirement for the office, created by the state constitution, is to be at least 18 and a resident for one year in the county in which the candidate is seeking the job.\nIn the past, attempts to increase the training or minimum qualifications have been defeated, in part because of a reluctance to add costs for counties.\nHowever, the debate has been rekindled in the wake of a mistake by the Grant County coroner in misidentifying Taylor University student Whitney Cerak, who was alive, as classmate Laura VanRyn, who died in an April 26 collision between a tractor-trailer and a school van.\nThe mistake went uncorrected for five weeks until Cerak emerged from a coma.\n"It's absolutely become a front-burner issue because of the tragic mistake in Grant County," said House Majority Floor Leader Bill Friend, R-Macy.\nFriend and other legislative leaders will meet Tuesday in Indianapolis to discuss what issues should be studied this summer by lawmakers as they prepare for next year's session.\nCoroner training - or even if Indiana should continue to elect coroners - could be among the topics picked, he and others said.\n"The question in a lot of our minds right now is, 'What would you do?'" he said.\nIssues like requiring DNA testing of all victims, requiring coroners to be physicians who are hired rather than elected, requiring coroners to undergo training in identification procedures and more should be up for discussion, said Rep. David Orentlicher.\nOrentlicher, D-Indianapolis, is also considering filing legislation to address the coroner issue, saying that "when you have this kind of mistake, you need to look at the system."\nHe said the state needs to look at what is working elsewhere, such as medical examiners. Many Indiana counties could not afford to pay a physician full-time to do that job, he said, but suggested a regional system might work.\nHouse Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said that while lawmakers "ought to figure out what was amiss," he isn't sure if an answer can be found to such an unusual situation as occurred in Grant County.\n"This is really, really, a strange situation," he said. "Not everything can be cured by legislation"