Post-Mortem Examination

A post-mortem examination or autopsy (Greek ‘autopsia, see with one’s own eyes’) serves to determine the cause of death.

Pursuant to Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), a post-mortem examination means “the opening of a corpse by an expert to determine the reason for and cause of death or other circumstances associated with the investigation of a crime.” The legal basis for such examinations continues to be the Provisions for performing forensic external examinations (Vorschrift für die Vornahme der gerichtlichen Totenbeschau) dated 1855 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Section 128).

There are five different types of post-mortem examinations depending on the reason for it, who commissions it and, subsequently, who carries it out:

• Clinical post-mortem
  Commissioned by: Attending physician
  Performed by: Clinical pathologist
  Applicable law: Section 25 of the Hospitals Act
  Aim: To clarify the cause of death and to check the quality of the diagnosis and treatment.

• Post-mortem ordered by the health authorities
  Commissioned by: Health authorities (city council or, in Vienna, MA 15 - Health Department)
  Performed by: Clinical pathologist or forensic medical specialist
  Applicable law: Respective provincial law e.g. Vienna Death and Funeral Act
  Aim: To determine the cause of death.

• Post-mortem ordered by the court
  Commissioned by: Public prosecutor’s office
  Performed by: Forensic medical expert
  Applicable law: Section 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
  Aim: To determine the cause of death and if it was caused by a third party.

• Private post-mortem examination
  Commissioned by: Relatives / next of kin
  Applicable law: Respective provincial law e.g. Vienna Death and Funeral Act
  Performed by: Post-mortems may essentially be performed by any physician with a licence to practice medicine in Austria. Physicians commissioned to conduct a private post-mortem examination must report this immediately to the health authorities, providing details of the name of the deceased, as well as the time and place of the planned post-mortem.
  Aim: To determine the actual cause of death, e.g. to clarify any insurance issues. 

• Post-mortem examination for the purposes of teaching
  Only possible if the deceased agreed to donate their body to an institute for anatomy at an Austrian medical university while still alive (e.g. in Vienna: Donating a body - Vienna Medical University).
  Relatives or next of kin can object to a body being donated if this wish was not recorded by a notary.
  Performed by: Anatomy, pathology or forensic medical specialist
  Aim: To teach students and train physicians, as well as to conduct scientific research.

In cases of clinical post-mortems, as well as those ordered by the health authorities or the courts, the consent of the relatives is not necessary and can therefore not be withheld either.

Private or training-related post-mortems may only be carried out on corpses that have been released for burial, i.e. only once a death certificate has been issued. 

Pursuant to the Death and Funeral Act, a report is to be made for every post-mortem ordered by an authority and must contain the following information:

• Identity of the autopsied body
• Findings
• Diagnosis of diseases
• Cause of death

Every post-mortem includes the following steps:

• External inspection
  •• Inspection of clothed body
  •• Inspection of naked body
• Internal examination, opening and inspecting the
  •• head
  •• chest cavity
  •• abdominal cavity
  •• and the skeletal system.
• Preservation of examination material
  
  

Recommendations by the Austrian Society of Forensic Medicine for post-mortem examinations on members of different faith communities: ÖGGM