Activists and members of the Chevra Kadisha have filed a
police complaint, claiming that organs of a Torah-observant
Jew were stolen during the week of parshas Korach in
the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine. The alleged
theft took place after the body of the deceased was brought
there for an autopsy following his sudden death in a work
accident.
Immediately following the death of a Torah- observant man by
electrocution in a work accident a police officer threatened
a brother of the deceased, saying that if he didn't consent
to an autopsy, the family would not receive the appropriate
survivor's compensation from the National Insurance
Institute. Under police pressure, the brother signed the
necessary documents and the body was brought to Abu Kabir for
an autopsy.
Police orders to the pathologists to perform the autopsy on
this body were in defiance of the law stating that autopsies
may not be conducted without a court order. In the afternoon,
when it was learned that an autopsy had begun, activists
asked the Court to issue immediate orders to halt it. They
then informed the Forensic Institute that they had asked the
Court to stop the autopsy immediately until the issuance of
orders of how to proceed.
Institute personnel replied that the autopsy had begun and
could not be halted. In the appeal to the Court, the judge
asked police officials to respond within 45 minutes of the
demand to stop the autopsy. Forty five minutes later, the
police officer replied that there was no point in holding
these deliberations since the autopsy had already been
completed.
The levaya of the young man was held that afternoon,
and members of the Chevra Kadisha were startled to discover
that many inner organs had been taken from his body.
Activists from the Committee for the Preservation of the
Honor of the Deceased complained to police about the theft of
organs, which is against the law.
Activists were shocked by the fact that the autopsy had been
conducted without the consent of the wife of the deceased,
his closest relative. They said that according to law, in
such cases one must first contact the wife of the deceased or
his parents; if they are all unavailable, only then, may they
contact a brother. The brother's approval in this case was
extracted illegally and the police brazenly violated the law.
The activists note, "The conducting of an autopsy by
pathologists without a court order is illegal, and all
necessary steps should be taken to fully penalize the
pathologists who violated the law."
