Requiring chief medical examiners to personally review deaths of children younger than two years old would ensure that the most qualified experts are involved in the highly sensitive cases, Sen. Cindy Friedman told her colleagues Monday.
Friedman urged the Joint Committee on Public Health to expedite legislation (H 2261/S 1439) that would make any autopsy findings a medical examiner performs involving a child under the age of two subject to review and approval by the office's chief, saying it would give more certainty in tragic and high-profile cases.
Under the existing system, examiners with limited experience can revise any case findings without the chief's involvement.
"This is a small ask for a very important issue, and I think it will especially help those that find themselves in this terrible situation as parents," Friedman said.
Parents who lost young children plan to testify and share their stories later at Monday's Public Health Committee hearing, according to a media advisory.
The group will include Sameer Sabir, whose daughter, Rehma, died just after her first birthday. Rehma's nanny, Aisling McCarthy Brady, was originally charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped after an associate medical examiner changed the reported cause of death from homicide to undetermined.
