Menezes Ritesh G., Monteiro Francis N.
College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
A.J. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Mangalore, India
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.
法医尸检是在死后进行的检查，以实现法医学目的。法医尸检也被称为法医学尸检。法医尸检的实施遵循相关法律当局的指示，这些当局负责对突然、意外、可疑、神秘、无人见证、不明、无法解释或有诉讼纠纷的死亡、刑事死亡、工业死亡以及与医疗或外科治疗相关且被指控存在医疗过失或麻醉死亡的死亡事件进行法医学调查。简而言之，所有非自然（他杀、自杀、意外）方式的死亡、可疑死亡和意外死亡都需要进行法律调查，其中包括尸检作为证据收集过程的一部分。指导尸检外科医生/法医病理学家进行法医尸检的法律当局可能是验尸官、法医、治安法官、警方或地方检察官，因为全球各地的法律规范差异很大。法医尸检的实施是法医学死亡调查系统的一部分。法医学死亡调查系统的类型因国家而异，甚至在一个国家内部也可能不同。例如，在美国，验尸官系统和法医系统的法医学死亡调查很普遍。在印度，由治安法官或警方进行法医学死亡调查。在苏格兰，地方检察官对需要进一步解释的死亡事件进行调查。在英国的其他地区（英格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰），验尸官对需要进一步解释的死亡事件进行调查。
