Pellegrino E D
Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1996 Aug;120(8):739-42.
Since the 18th century, the autopsy has been seen as an essential tool for advancing medical knowledge and monitoring the quality of patient care. In recent years, based on the mistaken assumption that newer diagnostic antemortem procedures, especially imaging techniques, have rendered the autopsy obsolete, it has fallen into serious disuse and disrepute. Data disproving this assumption are now emerging. The autopsy is still needed as a final test of the newer diagnostic techniques and as a means for integrating anatomic, physiologic, biochemical, and clinical features of new, as well as established, diseases. This essay examines the sources of clinicians' and pathologists' moral obligations to obtain, perform, and attend autopsies. It underscores the ethical responsibilities of families, hospitals, and society to restore the autopsy to a place of importance in the elaboration of the natural history of human disease.
自18世纪以来，尸检一直被视为推动医学知识进步和监测患者护理质量的重要工具。近年来，基于一种错误的假设，即更新的生前诊断程序，尤其是成像技术，已使尸检过时，尸检已严重被弃用且声名狼藉。现在有数据反驳这一假设。尸检作为对更新的诊断技术的最终检验以及整合新出现和已确诊疾病的解剖、生理、生化和临床特征的手段，仍然是必要的。本文探讨了临床医生和病理学家在获取、进行和参与尸检方面的道德义务来源。它强调了家庭、医院和社会在恢复尸检在阐述人类疾病自然史方面的重要地位方面的伦理责任。
