Neurol. praxi. 2015;16(3):137-139

Legal and ethical issues of autopsies and research with tissues obtained post-mortem

prof. MUDr. Jan Roth, CSc.

Neurologická klinika a Centrum klinických neurověd, Univerzita Karlova v Praze,

¹ . lékařská fakulta a Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice v Praze

The New Civil Code, effective in the Czech Republic from 1st January 2014, has considerably changed the rules for performing autopsies. Enshrined in this law is the human right to give a living consent that their body or its part can serve after death for the purposes of medical science, research, or teaching, or that the body can be autopsied. An autopsy cannot be performed without this consent. As a result of the above, problems occur with "elective" autopsies and, consequently, a lot of hospitals do not want to accept the risk of a possible lawsuit. Therefore, much fewer autopsies are currently performed in the Czech Republic (approximately one-tenth of the previous situation) and there has also been a significant reduction in the research with tissues obtained post-mortem. This law also has an impact on restrictions in teaching at medical schools; moreover, physicians of the deceased patient lose information on the appropriateness of diagnostic and therapeutic pathways. Unfortunately, there are certain contradictions in the New Civil Code (in relation to the Health Services Act) enabling several legal interpretations. For these reasons, the Ministry of Health is preparing an amendment to the Health Services Act that should address some of the interpretation problems and involve certain changes.

Keywords: Civil Code, Health Services Act, pathological-anatomical autopsy

Published: June 26, 2015  Show citation