My father died recently and the case was reported to the coroner. They did a post-mortem on the body straight away but the coroner still could not work out what caused his death. The finding was that cause of death is ‘unknown’. The family want to donate his organs to medical research. Can we have the body back to do this?
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Answer by Kate Dodgson, Brisbane 4000 QLD
- If the results of the post-mortem do not identify a cause of death then the organs are likely to be kept. This means that the body will not be released to the family.
- This is because there may be new evidence or new scientific techniques in the future that could help determine the cause of death.
- You can speak to the Coroner’s Court about applying to have the organs released. If this does not satisfy you then you can also talk to a lawyer and see what other options you have.