N.Y. State Governor Signs into Law Bill That Would Limit Power of Medical Examiners to Perform Autop

An unprecedented measure, which will substantially limit the power of medical examiners throughout New York State to perform autopsies over religious objections, an issue of vital concern to observant Jews, was signed into law yesterday by Governor Mario Cuomo.

The measure’s principal sponsor, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, (D. Man.) said, when the bill was adopted earlier this year by the Legislature, that it is the first and only law of its kind in the United States.

The new law provides that, if there is conscientious objection by next of kin or “friend” of the decedent, the medical examiner may not perform an autopsy unless there is “a compelling public necessity,” defined as a situation in which an autopsy is “essential to the conduct of a criminal investigation of a homicide” of which the dead person may be a victim; or that “discovery of the cause of death is necessary to meet an immediate and substantial threat to the public health; and that a dissection or autopsy is essential to ascertain the cause of death.”

Silver said the new law also provided that even a permissable autopsy cannot be performed without notice to permit “an objecting party to challenge the propriety of the particular dissection.”

Silver said the law requires that if a medical examiner contends an autopsy is warranted by a “compelling public necessity” other than investigation of a possible homicide or prevention of disease, a court order must be obtained “on notice of next of kin or friend, or if none is known to them, to such party as the court may direct.”

REVERSAL OF THE PRIOR PROCESS

Silver said this reverses the prior process of those opposing an autopsy having to go to court to half “clearly objectionable autopsies” but the new law also provides “a mechanism for a court to rule on extraordinary situations.”

Asserting that “many needless autopsies” are done in New York State, Silver said the new law, while recognizing certain necessities for valid post mortems, “more rationally defines those areas in which a medical examiner is entitled” to perform an autopsy.

Jewish religious law sets severe limits for permitting dissection of a body. Improper dissection is considered a defilement of the body and a desecration of the good name of the dead person.