A Post-Mortem: Quit Now, Amend
On Oct. 5, 1992, Dexter Amend appeared on the front page of the Spokesman-Review. It was a flattering story, about how the retired urologist organized a clinic at Spokane’s Union Gospel Mission. There, he was dispensing a folksy mixture of medical aid and Bible verses to the homeless.
This was a legacy that those who know him can remember with pride.
Not so with the legacy he’s leaving now. Instead of hearing and reporting compliments about his conduct, this newspaper has encountered a storm of complaints. Amend, now 76, was elected Spokane County Coroner in 1994. The manner in which he carries out this job attracts growing, serious criticism: from law enforcement officers, physicians, hospice workers, other coroners, nurses who monitor the death of children and the grieving family members of people who have died.
Those damaged by Amend’s conduct have begun to sue. Defense attorneys hired to represent this fiscal conservative so far have cost the taxpayers $42,370. That’s enough to perform more than 42 additional autopsies.
Amend balks at ordering some autopsies that police or physicians feel are warranted. Experts say some of Amend’s conclusions about causes of death lack a medical basis, resting instead on speculation. This skews public health records, leaves families in the dark about fatal genetic flaws, jeopardizes life insurance benefits and may allow murders to go undetected.
Numerous grieving families say Amend treated them with a strangeness that is more than rude - such as the time he repeatedly asked a dead boy’s brother if the deceased masturbated.
Amend was not elected to administer moralistic whippings to the families of people who die in circumstances that are, in his imagination at least, tainted by sin. If Amend wants to confront sinners he can go to the mission - but even there, Amend’s own example has showed how to appropriately touch the lives of the down and out.
A coroner’s duties require objectivity and professionalism - as Amend himself pointed out in a Jan. 17, 1992, letter to the editor. In that letter he fiercely denounced a death investigation for the same shaky medical conclusions now evident in his own work. The complaints from many respected professionals make it tragically clear that Amend has lost whatever capacity he once had to do this job. So long as he remains in it the discredit he brings upon his name, and the harm he does to the county, will increase. Amend should resign.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board