For my free blog I’d like to bring up an issue I literally just found out about. Medical examiners have the authority to keep parts of your body after you die, and not tell anyone, sort of. In the above story a family finds out from students visiting a morgue that their recently deceased and buried son’s brain is in the lab. I always thought an autopsy was a pretty simple affair (judging from CSI episodes) wherein the cause of death was usually discovered in roughly 2-3 minutes. Apparently some organs need to be kept for a couple of weeks in order to analyze them properly. While it does seem pretty unethical to keep body parts without informing the family that they’re missing, there are some reasons for doing so. First of all, many families are already distraught at having lost a loved one and may object to having the necessary tests performed if given the chance. More seriously, if anyone in the family was connected to that persons’ death/murder, they may deny medical examiners the opportunity to unearth their crime. For this reason many medical examiners are given almost a free rein and little oversight in what they choose to keep and for how long. Personally, I don’t really care too much what happens to my organs after I die. Whether they end up donated, in a lab, or in the ground, it won’t make any difference to me. Maybe a better system would be to give medical examiners the right to overrule families in terms of what they keep and for how long, provided they keep accurate records, treat the parts with due respect, and above all, inform the family beforehand. Did anyone else know about this postmortem practice? What do you think is a fair and ethical way to tackle this practice?
This is quite interesting in my opinion. However I do agree that the mof=rgue should have some overrule to the publics opinion. I believe only if a crime is commited and the suspect is still at large and could be found by examining the body properly. Then sure let the police and morgue do what they have to do to keep a killer for commiting murder again. But if its just an accidental death and no reason. Family should have full power to refuse an autopsy for medical use..
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