死因解明と行政解剖制度

According to a change in our society, the authorization of the cause of death in various cases has became more important than before, and the autopsy system for investigating the cause of death is now required. In Japan, the autopsy is legally divided into three major parts, such as anatomical, pathological and legal autopsies. Legal autopsy is furthermore subclassified into judicial and administrative autopsies. Based on Article 8 of Regulation of Autopsy and Preservation of Cadaver, "Medical Examiner Autopsy", the narrow sense administrative autopsy operated by the medical examiner, is only allowed for investigation of the cause of death, and such an autopsy system is employed in several cities acknowledged by government ordinance, such as 23 wards in Tokyo, Osaka City, Yokohama City, Nagoya City and Kobe City. Under the current system, the Medical Examiner Autopsy, which is the autopsy for elucidating the cause of death, is not legally allowed in other cities and areas, like Tokushima. In order to deal with such an inconvenience, a new autopsy system, which requires to obtain the bereaved family's consent, has already been introduced as a para-administrative autopsy system, and actually employed in Tokushima from April inl997.