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Israeli Court-Approved Compromise On Autopsies May Be Solution To Future Cases

By Howard M. Friedman

Arutz Sheva today reports on an interesting compromise worked out in the courts last week that may act as precedent in dealing with religious objections to autopsies. After the wife of the rabbi of the Yemenite Jewish community is the city of Ashkelon was murdered, authorities insisted they needed an autopsy to determine the cause of death. A magistrate's court rejected the family's religious objections, but while an appeal was pending in the Supreme Court a compromise was proposed-- perform a non-invasive MRI autopsy. After a great deal of bureaucratic "buck-passing", everyone agreed and the procedure was performed at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the prosecution to follow the MRI with a traditional autopsy in order to check the accuracy of the MRI procedure.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).