Should coroners release info about coronavirus victims? SC AG sees it both ways
The S.C. Attorney General’s Office was asked whether coroners can reveal to the public when COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, causes a person’s death.
On Monday, a legal opinion by that office took a firm position — on both sides of the issue.
“Only a court can resolve this question with finality, especially given the unprecedented nature of the current emergency,” said the opinion, written by Assistant Attorney General David Jones, a lawyer in Attorney General Alan Wilson’s Office.
Two seemingly opposed prior S.C. Supreme Court rulings would support either confidentiality or disclosure of the cause of death in novel coronavirus death cases, the opinion says.
A 1984 state Supreme Court ruling, Society of Professional Journalists v. Sexton, holds that S.C. death certificates are public record. Since death certificates list cause of death, that information should be disclosed when the death certificate is made public, the attorney general’s opinion said.
A person’s right to privacy is limited when the matter to be made public “is of legitimate public or general interest,” the state Supreme Court held in its Sexton decision, the opinion noted.
However, a separate 2014 state Supreme Court ruling, Perry v. Bullock, concerning coroners’ autopsy reports, says that “medical records ... and other records which by law are required to be closed to the public” are not considered to be open to the public, the Attorney General’s opinion noted.
Moreover, a state law concerning public health emergencies puts strict limits on what information can be disclosed during a public health emergency and that law would likely prohibit identifying people who die from COVID-19, the opinion says.
Opinions by state attorneys general are only advisory.
York County Coroner Sabrina Gast, president of the S.C Coroners Association, was not available Monday for comment. She had requested the opinion.
“Most of the time, natural deaths are of no interest to media,” Gast wrote in a letter to the attorney general quoted in Monday’s opinion. She continued: “however, you can imagine that in our current environment, the media is very interested. Our concern grows out of safety of the families left behind.”
DHEC announced Mondayan additional 64 coronavirus cases, bringing the state total since early March to 4,439.
DHEC also announced that four more South Carolinians have died of coronavirus, raising that total to 124. State health officials described 104 of the people as elderly, 16 patients were middle-aged, and all but 15 are confirmed to have had underlying medical conditions.
As of Monday morning, more than 2.4 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 165,903 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the world with 759,786 people who have been diagnosed with the novel virus. In the U.S. 40,683 deaths have been reported, including 14,451 in New York City, according to Johns Hopkins.
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
