State adds Jewish-sensitive practices to autopsies

Following the suicide of a Jewish Ner Israel Rabbinical College Student last December, Jewish practices regarding autopsies have changed in Maryland.

Suggestions made by the Agudath Israel of Maryland, an Orthodox Jewish religious community located in Pikesville, caused the chief medical examiner’s office to add certain procedures to its training manual that are sensitive to the Jewish community’s concerns about autopsies, according to the JTA.

The additions to the manual include the allowance of a Jewish community member to be present at the autopsy, and for the procedure to keep incisions minimal and sutured. This would also apply to the sensitivities and requests of other groups such as Muslims and Native Americans.

The state law requires that the medical examiner’s office provide an examination in the case of a suicide. Although the examination does not necessarily mean an autopsy, Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, director of Agudath Israel of Maryland advocates the changes by the chief medical examiner’s office because he understands the need to determine an accurate cause of death.

“To sign a death certificate, they have to understand what happened,” Sadwin told the JTA.