NEWPORT (AP) - A few months after the death of her 21-year-old son at sea in late 2001, Newport attorney Michele Eder contacted the state medical examiner's office, looking for his death certificate.

After a few weeks with no response, Eder called officials, and learned that it could take up to four months to get the death certificate for Ben Eder, who had been aboard the fishing boat Nesika when it capsized.

She asked for an explanation of the delay, and said she was told by a staff person, "Well, he might still turn up."

"My jaw dropped. I couldn't respond," Eder said. "After having faced the unending grief of losing your child, to have a bureaucrat say, 'He might turn up,' was just unfathomable."

Eder's story has inspired a bill that Gov. Ted Kulongoski is expected to sign, which gives the state medical examiner 45 days to issue a death certificate when credible information exists that the person was lost at sea. The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Alan Brown, R-Newport, at Eder's request.

It was an easy bill to get passed, Brown told The Oregonian.

"Apparently this has happened with commercial fishermen, who are often the breadwinner, up and down the coast," he said. "Without a death certificate, the family is unable to get the services they need - Social Security, life insurance. They have no other means of support, and they are in a real bind."

Since 1991, 21 commercial fishermen have died in Oregon coastal waters, according to the state Department of Consumer and Business Services. Four of those made up the crew of the Nesika, the boat Ben Eder was aboard.

The 36-foot fishing vessel went down just outside the Yaquina Bay entrance shortly after leaving the port.

A Coast Guard investigation failed to pinpoint the cause of the capsizing but noted that the boat wasn't overloaded and had recently passed a safety inspection.

Eder said she takes some comfort in the thanks she's received from fishermen on the coast for her effort and is content some good has come from her loss.

"When the worst thing imaginable happens, there needs to be something that makes some sense," Eder said. "There isn't a grave to visit to lay flowers - getting a death certificate allows a family to begin to accept the reality of what happened."