Autopsies on foreign nationals – Practical problems and solutions

Abstract

In view of increased immigration, incidents of deaths outside the deceased’s own country are on the rise. The death of a foreign national involves an array of legal formalities. Also a spectrum of queries and concerns may be raised by the authorities as well as the relatives regarding various aspects related to the death. It is especially true when the postmortem reports are kept in abeyance for want of reports of ancillary autopsy investigations. All these issues could make autopsy on foreign nationals, a thorn in the autopsy surgeon’s flesh. An attempt is made to draw attention towards the difficulties which can arise in such a scenario through one such case involving death of a foreign national, autopsied at our center.

Keywords

• Foreign national
• Autopsy
• Uniform protocol
• Ancillary autopsy investigations