The Forensic Autopsy

Abstract

A forensic autopsy is an examination conducted postmortem to address medicolegal objectives. A forensic autopsy is also called a medicolegal autopsy. The performance of a forensic autopsy follows instructions from the concerned legal authority responsible for the medicolegal investigation of sudden, unexpected, suspicious, mysterious, unwitnessed, obscure, unexplained, or litigious deaths, criminal deaths, industrial deaths, and deaths associated with medical or surgical treatment where medical negligence is alleged or anesthetic deaths. In brief, all deaths of unnatural (homicide, suicide, accident) manner, suspicious deaths, and unexpected deaths necessitate a legal investigation, which includes an autopsy as a portion of the evidence-gathering process. The legal authority directing the autopsy surgeon/forensic pathologist to conduct the forensic autopsy may be the coroner, the medical examiner, the magistrate, the police, or the procurator fiscal as the legal norms differ substantially across the globe. The performance of a forensic autopsy forms a part of the medicolegal death investigation system. The type of medicolegal death investigation system varies from one country to another and may even differ within a country. For instance, in the United States of America, the coroner system and medical examiner system of medicolegal death investigation are prevalent. In India, either the magistrate or the police conduct the medicolegal death investigation. In Scotland, the procurator fiscal investigates deaths requiring further explanation. In the other regions (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) of the United Kingdom, the coroner investigates deaths demanding further explanation.