The Second Vice Chairman for Suame Constituency of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Richard Asante, has described it as unfortunate for identifying a cause of death without a postmortem.
Media practitioners and others have publicly attributed the cause of death of the late Hon Dr Lawyer John Kumah, Deputy Finance Minister to the consumption of a poisonous substance.
Addressing a section of the media, Mr Asante, described it unprofessional for media practitioners to assume the role of medical officers by identifying the cause of death of the Ejisu legislator.
According to him, legally only medical officer with specialisation in pathology have the right to announce the cause of death.
Pathologists, according to him, are expected to conduct both external and internal examination of the body to ascertain the cause of death.
The situation, he said, will create doubts if post-mortem report declares a cause of natural death or any other cause, contrary to the speculated grounds.
He advised media practitioners to desist from assuming the roles of medical officers by pronouncing and declaring cause of deaths, which amount to unethical journalism and stick to their watchdog roles.
Mr Asante therefore called on the family to officially request for an autopsy to be conducted on the body as immediate as possible to determine the actual cause of Hon John Kumah’s death.
