This thread
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=72520 got me thinking.
When do they decide to to an autopsy? If the person is old and seeming died in their sleep would they do and autopsy? What if the family didn’t want the body carved up just to find out what they knew. Or, do they only do autopsies if there are “suspisious” circumstances?
IANAL, and I live in the UK, so laws in other places almost certainly vary, but, here at any rate, a rule of thumb is that an autopsy is going to be pretty much required in the event of any sort of unexpected death - to establish the cause, if necesary, and the circumstances surrounding it.
If someone dies under a doctor’s care - they’re being regularly treated and their medical condition is known - then I think the doctor can sign off a cause of death on the death certificate, and there will be no further investigation (unless some cause for concern is raised). Otherwise, expect an autopsy.
Case in point: my father was found dead in his car by the police some years ago. No cause of death apparent, so an autopsy was required. I don’t remember the family even being consulted (they might have spoken to my mother, she was next-of-kin). It turned out to be an aspirin overdose, of all things… Even if a cause of death is apparent, like in a serious accident, I’d expect an autopsy to be performed, if only to establish the exact circumstances (was person X just caught up in the multi-car pile-up, or did he suffer a fatal heart attack behind the wheel of the car? That sort of thing).
Authorities over here are sympathetic, but don’t let that stop them from doing their job. There have been conflicts between coroners and Moslem communities over this issue (Islamic custome requires a funeral to take place fairly quickly - quicker than most of the authorities can get through the process).
Here in the US I think it’s the same… if there’s a question regarding the cause of death, particularly if there are unusual circumstances, that would trigger an autopsy. If someone who is otherwise healthy dies for no apparent reason I assume that would be a cause to do one… but not if the person had been ill, hospitalized etc. and there was some known reason why they might have died,there’s no need to do one.
BTW, how does someone die from an Asprin overdose? I would think it would take a lot of Asprin to kill an adult person. Was he sensitive to Asprin all his life and just didn’t realize it? Sorry if this is getting too personal.
I am not a lawyer, either (sorry, I just refuse to say “IANAL” :)), but my reading of North Carolina General Statute 130A-383 leads me to believe that deaths
automatically come under review by a medical examiner. (Just so you’ll know, Article 19 of Chapter 15 is titled “Execution.”)
If, according to G.S. 130A-389 (ibid.),
NC G.S. 130A-398 goes on to state that under certain circumstances, even if the M.E. does not deem an autopsy advisable, the next-of-kin can request one and it will be done at their expense.
Hope this helps. Check your state’s laws. You can probably get to them from http://www.findlaw.com.
Well, I am a lawyer - and one who instructs autopsies!
In Scotland, an autopsy will always be done if the death is suspicious. They are also always done if someone dies as a result of an accident during the course of their employment, and if someone dies in police custody.
If the death is merely unexpected, even if there is no obvious cause, an autopsy may not be necessary, it would depend on the circumstances. If there were clearly no suspicious circumstances (which is all my department is really interested in), an autopsy would not normally be instructed.
Steve Wright is pretty much correct, but we don’t have an autopsy for every unexplained death - at least not in Scotland. He is absolutely correct that we can order one despite the wishes of the family. We do have conflicts with some Muslim families, but we do our best to avoid them.
I’m afraid some of the details are known only to my father. We know he wasn’t feeling well the night before, but he still got up to go to work before anyone else that day. I could imagine him taking a dose of aspirin and then, later, forgetting he’d done that and taking another one… but that’s just me imagining. At the time, we had one half-empty bottle of aspirin in the house, and it wasn’t empty the next time we looked at it.
There was a pathologist who gave evidence at the inquest, but a) it’s all a bit of a blur in my recollection, and b) I’m not a doctor, so the actual numbers she quoted didn’t mean anything to me at the time. All I can say is that it’s made me very careful, ever since, never to exceed the stated dose - of anything.
Was it paracetemol, rather than aspirin? 12 of those can be enough to kill you - they make your liver shut down.
Aspirin does a very good job of making the body extremely acidotic – the human body can only work in a very small pH balance (7.35-7.45 IIRC) and large amounts of aspirin will drastically lower that pH.
In New Mexico aspirin overdoses are one of only two overdoses that paramedics will usually blindly give sodium bicarbonate (very basic) in an effort to neutralize out the acid.
As long as they do it after the person’s dead, fine by me 
When my son was stillborn unexpectedly we were given a choice about the autopsy. The only reason we were allowed to choose was because he was entangled in the cord and it looked like a cord accident. This was in NZ.
I didn’t have an autopsy done and I’ve come to regret it since. I really wish someone had taken the time to explain what information they may have obtained. I’ve still got unanswered questions.
Primaflora - don’t regret your decision. Unless the autopsy showed that there was a clear medical defect with your baby, they would have gone with the cord accident explanation, and they didn’t need an autopsy to do that. Autopsies can tell a lot, but very often a clear cause of death is not apparent.
I don’t know if you know what’s involved in an autopsy - I’ve seen plenty, including kids - and although they are interesting, they are not pleasant, and it’s not fun to think of someone you knew and loved going through that. That’s happened to me too, although obviously it wasn’t an autopsy I needed to attend.
There’s always a balance when you consider whether or not to have an autopsy, and I avoid instructing them if possible.
I’m sure you made the right decision.