"Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet

succurrere vitae."
(This is the place where death rejoices to help those who live.)

ETHICAL ISSUES
ON AUTOPSY
GROUP RPS D3/ 18
•ALVY SYUKRIE
•ANITA CYNTHIA
•DIOXANDA AKHNARDO
•INDRIYANI
•LUKMAN H. DIAN P
•MISHEILLA
•NADYA KARINDRA
•SYAWALIKA ULYA I.
•VITA KARIMAH F.
•YASSER
 Definition
• Autopsy is the surgical examination of a
cadaver after death performed by specially-
trained physicians.
• Historically, the first major impetus for
autopsies was provided when Frederick II,
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,
instructed physicians studying at Salerno and
Naples to spend at least one year in the study
of anatomy.
 Purpose
• To provide greater medical knowledge
concerning the cause of someone’s death
• To learn the truth about the person's health
during life, and how the person really died
• Provide knowledge about a rare or contagious
disease
• Autopsy can be ordered when there is some
public health concern, i.e., a mysterious disease
or a worry about the quality of health care.
 Why Autopsy is Done?
• In cases of violent death or unattended death
an autopsy is required by law, no matter what
wishes were expressed by the next of kin
• some public health concern, i.e., a mysterious
disease or a worry about the quality of health
care
• something interesting for the family to know
 Ethics on Autopsy
• Respect for the dead body signifies respect for
human life, respect for the Author of life, and respect
for the person who once subsisted with this now
corrupting corpse, and who now exists in a different
modality.
• Hence the actions, the ritual that people follow when
caring for the body of a deceased person, have a
meaning beyond their apparent signification.
 Ethics on Autopsy

No organ should be removed from

a corpse nor should the body be
dismembered in any way
unless
there is a sufficient reason which
would justify such an action.
 Ethics on Autopsy
• The next of kin or the person to whom the corpse is
committed for care has the legal right to determine.
• However, the right is not absolute.
• It may be superseded by statements made by the
person while still alive; for example a statement that a
person wanted to donate his body for scientific study.
• If the next of kin were not willing to approve the
autopsy, the court could order that the autopsy be
performed.
• In cases of violent death or unattended death an
autopsy is required by law, no matter what wishes
were expressed by the next of kin.
 Ethics on Autopsy
• In such cases autopsies should be performed
because the good of the community demands
it and because increased medical knowledge is
needed.