S. Kim Suvarna
Editor

2016

A Guide to Modern Practice

The autopsy has been declining, not only in the UK but also across the rest of the developed world. This decline reflects advances in ante-mortem special tests (blood tests, surgical biopsies, various ante-mortem radiological techniques, etc.) that provide a much better insight into internal pathology than previously existed. Another factor has been the objections from some religious groups and the public disquiet about the practices of a few pathologists who have created a scandal at some centres, with the result that a number of ‘consented’ autopsies, relying on permission from relatives, have fallen.