First it was a desire for complete closure that drove Janet Rice in her attempt to get a copy of her wife Penny Whetton's post-mortem report.
Then it became an urge to overcome a perceived injustice.
But her attempts were rejected by a Tasmanian coroner.
The Victorian Greens senator says it highlights flaws in Tasmania's post-mortem system when senior next of kin face barriers accessing full medical reports into their loved ones' deaths — a situation that doesn't occur in most mainland states.
Ms Whetton died suddenly in 2019 at the couple's house in the seaside town of Sisters Beach.
She had earlier been diagnosed with a mitral valve prolapse and was taking medication for heart arrhythmias, described as a "family history" of "heart murmurs".
A Tasmanian coroner wrote the 61-year-old's cause of death was heart disease — dilated cardiomyopathy — and hypertension was the main contributing factor.
This prompted Senator Rice to question if there were any possible genetic issues that could have been passed on to their children.
She requested access to the full post-mortem report, and was told it could be sent to their GP in Melbourne, which she agreed to.
After a four-month wait, Senator Rice visited her GP to receive a copy of the report, but was told the coroner had only allowed the GP to explain its contents to her and then destroy it.
She was not allowed to see the report itself.
"My GP just thought that was extraordinary," Senator Rice said.
"The fact that not only was she not allowed to give it to me, but then after she had discussed it with me, she had to destroy it, I just found it completely baffling."
Senator Rice asked the coroner why she could not receive the full copy, to which the coroner's office responded that the report was "highly sensitive" and the coroner did not want it "further disseminated" or misinterpreted.
She said this added to her grief over Ms Whetton's sudden death.
"I was just devastated and just completely burst into tears, so distressing," she said.
"I was in a situation of having really good support around me, my friends and family who were supporting me in my grief at that stage, six months after Penny had died.
"If this is the way they treat everybody, it's just devastating and appalling and so insensitive.
"When you're grieving for somebody and you know the post-mortem has been done, it's part of being able to sit there and, for me as a scientist, have some closure.
"For me as Penny's wife, it was just such a slap in the face to not have that shared with me."
Search for answers continues
More than three years later, Senator Rice and her children still have not received a copy of Ms Whetton's post-mortem report.
While the immediate grief has eased, they still want this closure.
An assessment of state and territory laws and practices shows Tasmania and Western Australia have similar processes, where the reports are treated as a confidential document.
All other states and territories allow senior next of kin to get the reports, unless there are active legal proceedings.
NSW Health explicitly details this right on its website and Victoria includes it in its state coroner's handbook, while Queensland, South Australia and the ACT make it clear in legislation.
Tasmania's laws are being reformed, but the State Government rejected an attempt by the Greens to include this right for next of kin.
Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said withholding the reports was unnecessarily paternalistic.
"If a senior next-of-kin, or a bereaved person, or a representative of the deceased, wants to see a copy of the autopsy report, to read it themselves and make their own judgement, who are we to say they should not be able to?" she said.
The state opposition supported the amendment, believing safeguards could still be included in the laws.
Attorney-General Elise Archer said the coroner could still provide the full report, but had the discretion not to.
"The coroner's practice provides some safeguards around information that may prove distressing, such as the revelation of genetic issues that senior next of kin or other children, for example, may have inherited," she said.
However, Ms Archer committed to discussing the matter with Tasmania's chief magistrate, with the reforms yet to go before the state's upper house.
'Funny way to go around it': Doctor calls for change
While it remains relatively uncommon for Tasmanian GPs to be asked to summarise a post-mortem for a next of kin, an experienced doctor believes it would make sense to update the state's laws.
Dr Tim Jackson — chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Tasmania — said having a doctor read out a summary was "a funny way to go around it".
"If there's a medical condition that's potentially inherited, then the relatives ideally should be informed so that they would be aware to get that checked out," he said.
When it comes to the argument that knowledge of genetic information could be distressing, Dr Jackson said that should be up to the individual.
"The option of if you want to know, or if you don't, should be up to the person," he said.
"It should always be opt-in."
Ms Whetton's post-mortem report was also not provided to a cardiologist, which Senator Rice requested to help improve knowledge of heart disease, but Dr Jackson said sudden heart failure was a relatively common form of death and they were not usually provided to researchers.
Tasmania's Department of Justice would not comment on the specific case, but confirmed that post-mortem reports are "only ever released to medical practitioners".
