What is an autopsy and why is it performed. How does a coroner’s autopsy differ from a hospital autopsy. What are the rights of family members regarding autopsies. How is an autopsy conducted and what happens to tissue samples.

Understanding Autopsies: A Crucial Medical Examination

An autopsy, also known as a post mortem, is a thorough medical examination of a body and its internal organs after death. This procedure serves various purposes, from determining the cause of death to advancing medical knowledge. There are two primary types of autopsies: coroner’s autopsies and hospital autopsies, each with distinct protocols and objectives.

The Importance of Autopsies in Medical Science

Autopsies play a vital role in medical science and legal investigations. They provide valuable insights into disease processes, help evaluate treatment methods, and contribute to the understanding of genetic conditions. In some cases, autopsies can offer closure to grieving families by providing answers about their loved one’s death.

Coroner’s Autopsy: When Legal Clarity is Needed

A coroner’s autopsy is performed when there’s a legal necessity to determine the cause of death. This type of examination is typically conducted in cases of suspicious deaths, murders, or when the circumstances surrounding a person’s passing are unclear.

Circumstances Warranting a Coroner’s Autopsy

• Suspected homicide
• Unexplained or suspicious deaths
• Deaths in custody
• Workplace fatalities
• Sudden, unexpected deaths

In these situations, the coroner or police may order an autopsy to gather crucial information for legal proceedings or to rule out foul play.

Hospital Autopsy: Advancing Medical Knowledge

A hospital autopsy, also referred to as a non-coronial autopsy, is performed with the consent of the deceased’s immediate family. These examinations serve several purposes within the medical community and for the families of the deceased.

Reasons for Conducting a Hospital Autopsy

1. Clarifying uncertain causes of death
2. Evaluating the effectiveness of treatment methods
3. Providing information about potential genetic conditions
4. Advancing understanding of specific diseases or syndromes
5. Contributing to medical research and education

Hospital autopsies can offer valuable insights into complex medical conditions and help improve future patient care.

The Right to Refuse an Autopsy: Understanding Family Rights

The rights of family members regarding autopsies differ depending on whether it’s a hospital or coroner’s autopsy. It’s crucial for families to understand their options and rights in these situations.

Hospital Autopsy Refusal Rights

For hospital autopsies, the immediate family has the right to refuse or consent to the procedure. They can also specify limitations on the extent of the examination and decide whether organs or samples may be retained for further study. Open communication with hospital staff is essential to ensure the family’s wishes are respected.

Coroner’s Autopsy Objection Process

In the case of a coroner’s autopsy, the senior next of kin may object to the procedure within 48 hours of receiving notification from the coroner. The coroner must consider this request, but may still decide that the autopsy is necessary. If the coroner insists on proceeding, the family can appeal the decision in the Supreme Court, though there are strict time limits for this process.

The Autopsy Procedure: A Step-by-Step Overview

An autopsy is conducted with the same care and precision as a surgical operation. Understanding the process can help alleviate concerns and provide clarity for families.

Key Steps in the Autopsy Process

• The body is carefully positioned on an examination table
• A pathologist, assisted by a technician, performs the examination
• External examination and documentation, including photographs and X-rays
• Incision from collarbone to lower abdomen to examine internal organs
• Tissue samples are collected for microscopic examination and further analysis
• Brain examination, which may take up to three weeks
• Organ replacement and closure of incisions

The entire procedure typically takes up to three hours, though some organs may be retained for further testing for up to six weeks.

Tissue Samples and Organ Retention: Ethical Considerations

The handling of tissue samples and organs after an autopsy is a sensitive topic that requires careful consideration and clear communication with the deceased’s family.

Tissue Sample Storage and Use

Tissue samples are usually retained by the laboratory for potential future analysis. This practice allows for the possibility of answering remaining questions about the cause of death or nature of the disease as technology advances. However, keeping these samples requires specific consent from the next of kin.

Options for Retained Organs

Organs retained for further testing can be handled in several ways, depending on the family’s wishes:

• Returned to the family
• Disposed of by the hospital
• Kept for future medical research and training

Clear communication between the hospital and the family is crucial to ensure that the handling of retained organs aligns with the family’s preferences and cultural or religious beliefs.

Post-Autopsy Considerations: Funeral Arrangements and Results

After the autopsy is complete, families must navigate funeral arrangements and await the results of the examination. Understanding these processes can help families prepare and make informed decisions.

Funeral Planning After an Autopsy

Once the autopsy is finished, the body can be released to the family’s chosen funeral director. If organs have been retained for further testing, families have options:

• Proceed with the funeral without delay
• Wait for the return of retained organs before burial or cremation
• Arrange for embalming to preserve the body if there’s a delay

Families should discuss these options with their funeral director to make the best decision for their circumstances.

Receiving Autopsy Results

The timeline for receiving autopsy results varies depending on the complexity of the case and the tests performed:

• A preliminary report is typically available within a few days
• The full report, including detailed analysis, may take several weeks
• In some cases, additional specialized tests may extend the timeline further

Families should discuss with the pathologist or their healthcare provider about when to expect results and how they will be communicated.

The Impact of Autopsies on Medical Science and Public Health

While autopsies can be emotionally challenging for families, they play a crucial role in advancing medical knowledge and improving public health. The insights gained from these examinations contribute to various aspects of healthcare and societal well-being.

Contributions to Medical Research

Autopsies provide valuable data for medical research, helping scientists and healthcare professionals:

• Understand disease progression and mechanisms
• Develop new diagnostic techniques
• Evaluate the effectiveness of treatments
• Identify emerging health threats

This information is instrumental in advancing medical care and improving patient outcomes.

Public Health Benefits

Beyond individual cases, autopsies contribute to broader public health initiatives:

• Identifying trends in causes of death
• Monitoring the prevalence of specific diseases
• Assisting in the development of public health policies
• Supporting epidemiological studies

These contributions help shape healthcare policies and resource allocation, ultimately benefiting society as a whole.

Ethical Considerations in Autopsy Practices

The practice of performing autopsies involves numerous ethical considerations, balancing the needs of medical science, legal requirements, and the wishes of the deceased and their families.

Respecting Cultural and Religious Beliefs

Many cultures and religions have specific beliefs and practices regarding the treatment of the deceased. Healthcare providers and coroners must navigate these considerations carefully, striving to respect cultural norms while fulfilling legal and medical obligations.

Informed Consent and Family Rights

Ensuring that families fully understand their rights and the autopsy process is crucial. This includes:

• Clear communication about the reasons for the autopsy
• Explanation of the procedure and potential outcomes
• Discussion of options for organ and tissue retention
• Information about the impact on funeral arrangements

Transparent and compassionate communication helps families make informed decisions during a difficult time.

The Future of Autopsies: Technological Advancements

As medical technology continues to evolve, so too do the techniques and tools used in autopsies. These advancements promise to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of post-mortem examinations while potentially reducing their invasiveness.

Emerging Technologies in Post-Mortem Examinations

Several innovative approaches are being developed or refined for use in autopsies:

• Virtual autopsies using advanced imaging techniques
• Genetic analysis for identifying hereditary conditions
• Artificial intelligence for analyzing autopsy data
• Minimally invasive autopsy techniques

These advancements may offer new insights while addressing some of the ethical and cultural concerns associated with traditional autopsy methods.

Implications for Medical Research and Forensic Science

The integration of new technologies in autopsy practices has far-reaching implications:

• Enhanced ability to detect subtle abnormalities
• Improved accuracy in determining causes of death
• Potential for creating comprehensive digital records
• Opportunities for remote consultations and second opinions

As these technologies become more widespread, they may revolutionize the field of post-mortem examinations and their contributions to medicine and law.

Navigating the Emotional Aspects of Autopsies

While autopsies serve important medical and legal purposes, they can be emotionally challenging for the families of the deceased. Understanding and addressing these emotional aspects is crucial for healthcare providers and support systems.

Supporting Families Through the Process

Healthcare institutions and professionals can provide support to families in several ways:

• Offering clear, compassionate communication about the autopsy process
• Providing access to grief counseling services
• Respecting cultural and religious practices when possible
• Ensuring families have time to process information and make decisions

This support can help families navigate the difficult decision-making process and cope with their loss.

Balancing Emotional Needs with Medical and Legal Requirements

Finding the right balance between emotional sensitivity and the necessary medical or legal procedures is a delicate task. This may involve:

• Explaining the importance of the autopsy in a compassionate manner
• Offering alternatives or compromises when possible
• Providing detailed information about how the body will be treated
• Ensuring families understand their rights and options

By addressing both the emotional and practical aspects of autopsies, healthcare providers can help families through this challenging process while fulfilling necessary medical and legal obligations.

Autopsy – Better Health Channel

Summary

Read the full fact sheet

• An autopsy or post mortem is the medical examination of a body after death.
• A hospital (or non-coronial) autopsy may be performed if the immediate family give their consent.
• A coroner’s autopsy is performed if the coroner or police need information about the cause of death – for example, if the person was murdered or their death was suspicious.

An autopsy, or post mortem, is the medical examination of a body and the internal organs after a person has died. There are two types of autopsy – a coroner’s autopsy and a hospital autopsy.

Coroner’s autopsy

A coroner’s autopsy is performed if the coroner or police need information for legal reasons about the cause of death – for example, if the person was murdered or their death was suspicious.

Hospital autopsy

A hospital (or non-coronial) autopsy may be performed if the immediate family give their consent. In this case, the autopsy can help to clarify the reasons why the person died, or offer information to the medical profession on the deceased person’s condition. Some of the reasons for a hospital autopsy can include:

• In some cases, the cause of the person’s fatal illness may be unknown or uncertain.
• An autopsy can help determine the success (or otherwise) of a treatment method.
• An autopsy can give family members information in the case of suspected genetic illness.
• Medical science can learn about disease processes, such as atherosclerosis or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or the prevalence of particular diseases.

The right to refuse an autopsy

‘Hospital’ and ‘coronial’ post mortems have differing rules around refusal rights.

Hospital autopsy

The immediate family has the right to refuse or agree to a hospital autopsy of the deceased. They may also choose to consent to an autopsy, but limit the extent of the examination. They can also decide whether or not organs or samples taken from the body may be kept for further study. Make sure you discuss these issues with hospital staff.

Coronial autopsy

The senior next of kin may object to the carrying out of a coronial autopsy and the coroner must consider their request to reconsider if the request is made within 48 hours of the senior available next of kin receiving a notification from the coroner.

Where the coroner decides that an autopsy is still required, the matter may be appealed in the Supreme Court. But there is a limited time in which these objections to a coronial autopsy may be made. Provisions about objecting to a coronial autopsy are contained in s26 and s79 of the Coroners Act 2008External Link.

The autopsy procedure

The autopsy is performed like a surgical operation. The steps may include:

• The autopsy is performed as soon as possible following the family’s consent.
• It is performed by a specially qualified doctor, called a pathologist, who is assisted by a technician.
• The room in which the autopsy is performed is very similar to a hospital operating theatre.
• The body is laid out carefully on an examination table.
• The pathologist first looks at the body, noting its appearance.
• Photographs and x-rays may be taken.
• The pathologist makes a cut on the body from the collarbone to the lower abdomen to examine the chest and abdominal organs.
• Tiny tissue samples are taken from each organ for examination under a microscope and may also be sent for chemical analysis or microbiological culture.
• In most cases, the brain is examined. This requires cutting through the scalp and skull. The brain is a very fragile organ – to examine it carefully and properly may take up to three weeks.
• Some organs may need to be kept for up to six weeks so that further tests can be performed in the pathology department.
• After the autopsy, the organs are replaced and the skin is stitched (sutured) closed again as happens after any operation.
• The post mortem can take up to three hours.

Tissue samples from an autopsy

Tissue samples taken from the body are usually kept by the laboratory. The samples are kept in the hope that technological advances may one day answer any remaining questions about the cause of death or the nature of the disease. Keeping tissue samples requires the specific consent of the deceased’s next of kin.

Organs that have been retained for further testing are returned to the family, disposed of by the hospital or kept for future medical research and training of medical staff, according to the family’s wishes.

The funeral

Once the autopsy is complete, the body can be collected by the family’s chosen funeral director. If some of the organs have been retained for further testing, the funeral may need to be delayed for a few days or weeks if the family wants the body to be whole before it is buried or cremated. In this case, the funeral director can arrange to embalm the body.

Autopsy results

A preliminary report is available within the first few days, but the full results of the autopsy are not usually available until around six to 12 weeks later. It may be best to arrange for the report to be sent to the family doctor, so that the next of kin can make an appointment to discuss the findings with their doctor. In other cases, the family could make an appointment with the pathologist.

Where to get help

• Your doctor
• Hospital staff
• Pathologist
• State Coroner’s Office Tel. 1300 309 519
• National Coronial Information SystemExternal Link

• The National Code of Ethical Autopsy Practice, Department of Health Victoria.
• Information for next-of-kin regarding non-coronial post mortems, Department of Health Victoria.

This page has been produced in consultation with and approved
by:

When and Why Are They Done?

Written by Matt Smith

Medically Reviewed by Jennifer Robinson, MD on December 01, 2022

• Coroners and Medical Examiners
• What Happens In an Autopsy?
• When Is One Required?
• When Is It Optional?
• Family Wishes and Faith

An autopsy is a detailed dissection of a deceased person, done to determine why they died.

If you and your family are dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one, you may find comfort in getting answers at this difficult time. But you should also know that autopsies don’t always have to be done. If you do need one, it’s usually both a medical and a legal process.Laws differ state by state.

You can ask for an autopsy if you have questions about how a family member died. And sometimes doctors will ask your permission to do one if they have questions.

Every local government has an official who records deaths. They’re called either a coroner or a medical examiner.

All but a handful of states require medical examiners to be doctors. Coroners may be doctors as well, but don’t have to be.

Coroners are usually elected officials. Many of them have no medical training. When an autopsy needs to be done, they rely on a medical examiner.

A doctor examines the remains inside and out. They can remove internal organs for testing and collect samples of tissue or bodily fluids such as blood.

The exam usually takes 1 to 2 hours. Many times, experts can figure out the cause of death in that time.

But in other cases, you might have to wait until a lab can do more tests to look for signs of drugs, poisons, or disease. That can take several days or weeks.

In 20 states and the District of Columbia, a pathologist — a doctor who specializes in the study of disease and injury — has to do the autopsy.

Once it is finished, the doctor will report an exact cause of death and how they think it happened — whether someone died from natural causes, an accident, homicide or suicide.

Although laws vary, nearly all states call for an autopsy when someone dies in a suspicious, unusual, or unnatural way.

Many states have one done when a person dies without a doctor present. Twenty-seven states require it if the cause of death is suspected to be from a public health threat, such as a fast-spreading disease or tainted food.

A doctor might ask you to allow an autopsy if your loved one died of an unexpected illness.

They’re usually trying to learn more about what happened, either to ease your mind, to learn whether other family members might be in danger of the same thing, or to find out something that might help other patients. 

In some cases, a condition that a person had in life can only be diagnosed after they die. For instance, doctors can learn for certain that someone had Alzheimer’s disease only after they examine the brain in an autopsy. It’s up to the family to decide whether to allow it.

The dead person’s next-of-kin also can ask for an autopsy if there are some concerns about why someone died. In addition to public officials, some private firms do them for a fee.

Some religious traditions discourage autopsies, believing a person’s body should be kept whole or otherwise left alone after death. Or they say burial should not be delayed.

Many states have laws that honor religious objections. Medical examiners sometimes change the way they do an autopsy out of respect for the family’s beliefs. But states still require one when it’s needed to investigate a crime or head off a threat to public health.

Most examinations shouldn’t delay a funeral or prevent a viewing of the body during a service. Funeral directors are usually able to hide any signs of the autopsy with clothing.

Top Picks

Article 67. Carrying out pathological and anatomical autopsy \ ConsultantPlus

prepared the editorial board of the document with changes that did not enter into force

Article 67. Carrying out pathological and anatomical autopsy 1. Pathological and anatomical autopsy are carried out by doctors of the corresponding specialty in order to obtain data on data about data the cause of death and the diagnosis of the disease.

2. The procedure for conducting pathological and anatomical autopsies is determined by the authorized federal executive body.

3. For religious reasons, if there is a written application of a spouse or close relative (children, parents, adopted children, adoptive parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandfather, grandmother), and in their absence, other relatives or a legal representative of the deceased or upon expression of will the deceased himself, made during his lifetime, a pathological-anatomical autopsy is not performed, except in cases:

1) suspicion of violent death;

2) the impossibility of establishing the final clinical diagnosis of the disease that led to death and (or) the immediate cause of death;

3) provision of medical care to a deceased patient by a medical organization in a hospital for less than one day;

4) suspected overdose or intolerance to drugs or diagnostic products;

5) death:

a) associated with preventive, diagnostic, instrumental, anesthetic, resuscitation, therapeutic measures, during or after the operation of blood transfusion and (or) its components;

b) from an infectious disease or if it is suspected;

c) from cancer in the absence of histological verification of the tumor;

d) from a disease associated with the consequences of an environmental disaster;

e) pregnant women, women in childbirth, puerperas (including the last day of the postpartum period) and children under the age of twenty-eight days inclusive;

6) the birth of a dead child;

7) the need for a forensic medical examination.

4. When conducting a pathological-anatomical autopsy, histological, biochemical, microbiological and other necessary methods of examination of individual organs, tissues of the deceased or their parts are an integral part of the diagnostic process in order to identify the causes of death of a person, complications of the underlying disease and concomitant disease, his condition. The will of the deceased, expressed during his lifetime, or a written statement of the spouse, close relative (children, parents, adopted children, adoptive parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandparents), and in their absence, other relatives or the legal representative of the deceased about conducting such research is not required.

5. The conclusion on the cause of death and the diagnosis of the disease is issued to the spouse, close relative (children, parents, adopted children, adoptive parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandfather, grandmother), and in their absence to other relatives or the legal representative of the deceased, law enforcement bodies, the body exercising federal state control over the quality and safety of medical activities, and the body exercising federal control over the quality and conditions for the provision of medical care, at their request.

(as amended by Federal Law No. 170-FZ of June 11, 2021)

(see the text in the previous edition)

grandchildren, grandfather, grandmother), and in their absence, other relatives or the legal representative of the deceased are given the right to invite a specialist doctor (with his consent) to participate in the autopsy.

7. The conclusion on the results of a pathological and anatomical autopsy can be appealed in court by a spouse, close relative (children, parents, adopted children, adoptive parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandfather, grandmother), and in their absence by another relative or legal representative of the deceased in the manner prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

8. Pathological and anatomical autopsy is carried out with respect for the body of a deceased person and maintaining its maximum anatomical shape.

The procedure for conducting pathological and anatomical autopsies

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Nekhaevsky district explains the legislation governing the procedure for conducting pathological and anatomical autopsies.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Nekhaevsky District explains the legislation governing the procedure for conducting pathological and anatomical autopsies.

In connection with numerous appeals regarding the autopsy of elderly citizens and the possibility of refusing to autopsy corpses, the Nekhaevsky District Prosecutor’s Office is clarifying the current legislation.

Pathological and anatomical autopsies are regulated by Federal Law No. 323-FZ of November 21, 2011 “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation” and Order of the Russian Ministry of Health No. 354n of June 6, 2013 “On the Procedure for Conducting Pathological and Anatomical Autopsies”.

In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 67 of this Law and clause 2 of the Procedure for Conducting Pathological and Anatomical Autopsies, a pathological and anatomical autopsy is carried out by a pathologist in order to obtain data on the cause of death of a person and the diagnosis of the disease.