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Med Hypotheses 2019 Jan 30;122:180-183. Epub 2018 Nov 30.

New Mexico Health Enhancement and Marathon Clinics Research Foundation, 361 Big Horn Ridge Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM, USA; New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 1801 Mountain Road NW, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

Many world-renowned scientists and artists had autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We suggest that the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) also had ASD. As a boy, he demonstrated his mastery of language, mathematics and science. Read More

PLoS One 2018 9;13(8):e0202023. Epub 2018 Aug 9.

Department of Histopathology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.

Background: Perinatal and paediatric autopsy rates are at historically low levels with declining uptake due to dislike of the invasiveness of the procedure, and religious objections particularly amongst Muslim and Jewish parents. Less invasive methods of autopsy including imaging with and without tissue sampling have been shown to be feasible alternatives. We sought to investigate attitudes including religious permissibility and potential uptake amongst members of the Muslim and Jewish communities in the United Kingdom. Read More

Br J Radiol 2018 Nov 14;91(1091):20180295. Epub 2018 Aug 14.

1 Department of Oncology and Metabolism, University of Sheffield , Sheffield , UK.

Objective:: People's views regarding autopsy vary according to their cultural and religious beliefs. This paper aims to determine the opinions towards this procedure among Muslims resident in Libya and Muslims and non-Muslims resident in the UK. Our long-term goal is to improve autopsy rates; whether conventional or through the use of post-mortem imaging. Read More

Transplant Proc 2018 Mar;50(2):312-315

Proyecto Colaborativo Internacional Donante ("International Collaborative Donor Project"), Murcia, Spain; Department of Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; Transplant Unit, Surgery Service, IMIB-Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain.

Background: The Puerto Rican population represents one of the largest immigration groups in Florida, and this has an impact on the organ transplant donation process. Our aim was to analyze attitudes toward organ donation among Puerto Ricans who currently reside in the state of Florida (USA).

Methods: The population screened consisted of individuals >15 years old, who were born in Puerto Rico, living in Florida, and awaiting organs for transplant. Read More

J Relig Health 2018 Apr;57(2):649-661

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA.

Death is defined in the Quran with a single criterion of irreversible separation of the ruh (soul) from the body. The Quran is a revelation from God to man, and the primary source of Islamic knowledge. The secular concept of death by neurological criteria, or brain death, is at odds with the Quranic definition of death. Read More

Palliat Support Care 2017 10;15(5):609-622

Division of Hematology,Mayo Clinic,Rochester,Minnesota.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the religious/spiritual beliefs of followers of the five major world religions about frequently encountered medical situations at the end of life (EoL).

Method: This was a systematic review of observational studies on the religious aspects of commonly encountered EoL situations. The databases used for retrieving studies were: Ovid MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid PsycINFO, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Scopus. Read More

Pathologe 2017 Sep;38(5):396-401

Institut für Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin, Uniklinik der RWTH Aachen, Wendlingweg 2, 52074, Aachen, Deutschland.

Background: Autopsy quotas in Germany are persistently low. By way of providing an explanation, the (ethical) reservations of the general population against autopsies are presented.

Objective: Normative assessment of clinical autopsies, elaboration of ethically relevant arguments for and against autopsies and review of the suspected reservations of the general population. Read More

Transpl Int 2017 Oct 17;30(10):1020-1031. Epub 2017 Jul 17.

Transplant Unit, Surgery Service, IMIB - Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital, Murcia, Spain.

The Latin American (LA) population resident in the USA is a growing subgroup of the population. To find out the structure of attitude towards organ donation in the LA population resident in Florida (USA). A sample was taken of LA residents in Florida, randomized and stratified by nationality, age and sex (n = 1524). Read More

BJOG 2018 Jan 21;125(2):172-181. Epub 2017 Mar 21.

UCL Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK.

Background: Postmortem examination is the single most useful investigation in providing information to parents about why their baby or child died. Despite this, uptake remains well below the recommended 75%.

Objective: To address the question 'what are the barriers and motivators to perinatal, prenatal and paediatric PM examination?'

Search Strategy: Key databases including Pubmed and CINAHL; Cochrane library, websites of relevant patient organisations, hand search of key journals, first and last authors and references. Read More

PLoS One 2016 28;11(12):e0167988. Epub 2016 Dec 28.

University of Toulouse, French National Center for Scientific Research, UMR 5288, Toulouse, France.

The evolution of funeral practices from the Middle Ages through the Modern era in Europe is generally seen as a process of secularization. The study, through imaging and autopsy, of two mummies, five lead urns containing hearts, and more than six hundred skeletons of nobles and clergymen from a Renaissance convent in Brittany has led us to reject this view. In addition to exceptional embalming, we observed instances in which hearts alone had been extracted, a phenomenon that had never before been described, and brains alone as well, and instances in which each spouse's heart had been placed on the other's coffin. Read More

Transplant Proc 2016 Sep;48(7):2482-2484

Department of Nursing, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.

Background: Nursing students, as future professionals, have an enormous impact on the opinion of the rest of the population on topics of organ donation and transplantation (ODT). The objective of this study was to analyze the attitudes of nursing students at the University of Bialystok toward ODT, and to determine the factors that affect ithemt.

Methods: Academic year 2011-2012. Read More

Lancet 2016 Aug;388(10044):559

School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy.

Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2016 Jun;37(2):127-31

From the *Department of Dammam Forensic and Legal Medicine Centre, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; and †Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department, Beni Suef University, Egypt.

This article is a review, from a Saudi Arabian perspective, of selected historical Arabic books and recent medicolegal journal articles on 4 current controversial issues: medical ethics, forensic autopsies, end-of-life decisions, and genetic profiling. This article demonstrates the flexibility of the Islamic medical jurisprudence to accommodate medicolegal issues. Read More

Orv Hetil 2016 Apr;157(14):554-7

SK-93 008 Csilizradvány 284., Szlovákia.

Breast Cancer Res Treat 2016 Jan 24;155(1):159-64. Epub 2015 Dec 24.

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), 300 Halket Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.

Rapid autopsy (RA) offers a unique opportunity to obtain a large amount of metastatic tissue at death in order to deepen existing understanding of cancer evolution and heterogeneity. In breast cancer, understanding metastasis is particularly valuable given that treatment regimens are based on the traditional hormone and HER2 receptor status as well as evolving genomic data of the primary tumor. We aimed to elucidate the attitudes and interests of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) toward RA, and to identify associated demographic or disease characteristics that may influence patient attitudes and interest. Read More

Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2016 Mar;37(1):29-31

From the Lékařská Fakulta Masarykovy Univerzity, Brno, Czech Republic.

Religious beliefs and cultures have influenced treatment of dead bodies in different ways by nations throughout history, and attitudes toward the deceased individuals have changed across time and so has the role and mechanism of autopsy. Islam has been a part of Europe for a long time; therefore, we would like to emphasize the important issues for Muslims and their families regarding death, autopsy, and funeral and to describe international perspectives of Muslim autopsies. Muslims have expressed their views on autopsy publically and internationally, and there have been claims of violation of the deceased, delays in burial, and nonconsideration of their religious beliefs. Read More

Med Anthropol 2016 Jul-Aug;35(4):322-37. Epub 2015 Oct 12.

a Center for Modern Indian Studies and Institute for Social Anthropology at Goettingen University, Germany & Department of Anthropology and Department of Religion, Williams College , Williamstown , Massachusetts.

This essay discusses the Indian government's implementation of maternal death reviews (MDR) across the country in response to a global WHO strategy called 'Beyond the Numbers.' India's MDR process attempts to better count and assess maternal deaths across the country, yet considerable challenges remain. Existing studies of the MDR process in India still reveal systemic failures including poor quality of obstetric care, as well as omissions or delays of care that are covered up or denied. Read More

J Forensic Leg Med 2015 Nov 6;36:52-3. Epub 2015 Sep 6.

Forensic Medicine Division, Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Fahd Hospital of the University, University of Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address:

J Forensic Leg Med 2015 Aug 18;34:159-63. Epub 2015 Jun 18.

Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College & Hospital, Siruvachur, Perambalur District, 621113, Tamailnadu, India. Electronic address:

Background: Medico-legal autopsies are conducted as a part of necessary investigation in all unnatural deaths. In India, the awareness about medico-legal autopsies among the population is still at incipient stage. The procedure is largely stigmatised due to various myths and misconceptions. Read More

J Forensic Leg Med 2015 May 18;32:4-9. Epub 2015 Feb 18.

King Saud University, College of Medicine Forensic Unit, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address:

Autopsies are performed in the majority of Arab, Muslim countries. Several of these countries face social challenges and others do not have well established academic programs to teach the science. In this article we intend to review the history and practice of the forensic part of autopsies in a few Arab, Muslim countries (Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Kuwait) and compare it with the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK), 2 countries where the practice of forensic science and Forensic pathology is well established. Read More

Transpl Int 2015 Apr 21;28(4):437-47. Epub 2015 Jan 21.

Proyecto Colaborativo Internacional Donante ('International Collaborative Donor Project'), Murica, Spain; Regional Transplant Center, Consejería de Sanidad, Servicio Murciano de Salud, Murcia, Spain; Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; Surgery Service, Murcia Health Service, Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital, Murcia, Spain.

Unlabelled: The Latin American (LA) population has similarities with the Spanish population which makes its integration into Spanish society easier.

Objective: to analyze the attitude toward organ donation among Latin American citizens residing in Spain, to determine the psychosocial variables which affect this attitude, and to examine the correlation between donation rates of LA citizens in Spain and in their countries of origin. A random sample of LA residents in Spain was taken and stratified according to the respondent's nationality (n = 1. Read More

Cardiovasc Pathol 2014 Nov-Dec;23(6):344-50. Epub 2014 Jul 26.

Laboratory of Medical Ethics, University of Paris 5, 45 Saints Pères street, 75006 Paris, France. Electronic address:

We present here the results of our inter-disciplinary examination of the mummified heart of Blessed Anne-Madeleine Remuzat (1696-1730). This organ has been examined in the context of a canonization process. This analysis is related to important aspects of the early history of anatomy in Europe, that of "Holy autopsies", and to the relationship between anatomical investigations, Catholic theology, and religious/medical customs. Read More

Prenat Diagn 2014 Nov 5;34(11):1106-10. Epub 2014 Jul 5.

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Brugmann, Brussels, Belgium.

Objective: To determine parental acceptance of minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) involving postmortem imaging and organ tissue sampling compared with conventional autopsy and to compare the acceptability of percutaneous versus laparoscopic-guided biopsy.

Methods: Following termination of pregnancy parents were offered the option of traditional autopsy and subsequently interviewed about their acceptance of MIA. The McNemar test for paired samples was used to assess the difference in acceptance of MIA and conventional autopsy. Read More

Ann Fr Anesth Reanim 2014 May 14;33(5):e99-e100. Epub 2014 May 14.

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital of Toulouse, Équipe d'accueil "Modélisation de l'agression tissulaire et nociceptive", University Paul-Sabatier, hôpital Purpan, place du Dr-Baylac, 31000 Toulouse, France. Electronic address:

Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2014 Sep 28;10(3):469-71. Epub 2014 Feb 28.

Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, P.zza G. Cesare, 11, 70124, Bari, Italy,

J Forensic Leg Med 2014 Mar 20;23:80-3. Epub 2014 Feb 20.

Forensic Medicine Center in Dammam, Saudi Arabia; Egyptian Forensic Medicine Authority, Egypt.

Autopsy, or post-mortem examination, is the dissection of a dead body. It is performed for many reasons. Attitudes toward dead bodies vary with religious beliefs and cultural and geographical backgrounds. Read More

Cir Esp 2014 Jun-Jul;92(6):393-403. Epub 2014 Feb 22.

Unidad de Trasplantes, Servicio de Cirugía, Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, España; Departamento de Cirugía, Ginecología y Pediatría, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, España.

Introduction: Hospital personnel are a group which has an influence on the opinion of the rest of the population about healthcare matters. Any unfavorable attitude of this group would be an obstacle to an increase in organ donation.

Objective: To analyze the attitude of hospital workers toward the donation of one's own organs in Spanish and Latin American hospitals and to determine the factors affecting this attitude. Read More

Nefrologia 2013 ;33(5):699-708

Introduction: Non-medical staff members in hospitals are highly credible at population level, and are a source of opinion even though they do not have sufficient medical training.

Objectives: To analyse the attitudes of non-medical professionals of Spanish and Latin American hospitals towards organ donation and identify the factors that influence these attitudes.

Material And Method: Through the "Proyecto Colaborativo Internacional Donante" (International Collaborative Donor Project), a stratified random sample was selected from non-medical services of eleven hospitals: 3 Spanish (n=277), 5 Mexican (n=632), 2 Cuban (n=42) and 1 Costa Rican (n=101). Read More

Harefuah 2013 Jun;152(6):348-51, 368

Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel.

Forensic medicine is the application of science to the medical disciplines to answer questions related to criminal law. Most forensic practitioners are physicians with expertise in pathology. In the field of post mortem surgeries, the extensive area of the encounter between the law and medicine is compLicated. Read More

BMC Palliat Care 2013 Mar 26;12:14. Epub 2013 Mar 26.

Addis Ababa Mortality Surveillance Program, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Background: Dying at home is highly prevalent in Africa partly due to lack of accessibility of modern health services. In turn, limited infrastructure and health care deliveries in Africa complicate access to health services. A weak infrastructure and limited health facilities with lower quality in Ethiopia resulted poor health service utilization and coverage, high morbidity and mortality rates. Read More

Prenat Diagn 2013 Apr 4;33(4):307-12. Epub 2013 Mar 4.

Department of Paediatric Pathology, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.

Background: Perinatal autopsy provides essential clinical information, including cause of death; yet, autopsy rates have steadily declined because of parental refusal. Technology now enables less invasive alternatives to traditional autopsy and may increase the acceptability of post-mortem examination.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relative acceptability among healthcare professionals of a minimally invasive autopsy (MIA; magnetic resonance imaging and laparoscopic-guided tissue sampling), compared with standard autopsy. Read More

J Relig Health 2013 Dec;52(4):1346-55

Department of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, University Hospital (AP-HP, UVSQ), 104 R. Poincaré Boulevard, 92380, Garches, France,

Facing modern developments of medicine and biomedical researches, religious communities are a strong source of ethics principles and orientations. Human dignity does not disappear after life, in a context of biomedical research on cadavers. Moral, political, social and scientific aspects of research on human cadavers (mainly autopsies) have been widely discussed in biomedical publications, whereas the religious ones (which could be predominant for some) have rarely been analyzed and presented. Read More

Eur J Epidemiol 2012 Jul 27;27(7):577-80. Epub 2012 Jun 27.

Hist Psychiatry 2012 Mar;23(89 Pt 1):104-16

Department of History, Park Campus, University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN27HS, UK.

This article argues that death from insanity raised serious questions for the medical profession and for those who promoted the public asylum movement in the nineteenth century. While the medical emphasis on the somatic origins of insanity was increasingly accepted, limited observable signs of disease in the brain at post-mortem made it difficult to explain cause of death. This posed problems for a growing county asylum movement which was justified on the basis that insanity was a treatable disease and thus mortality rates would naturally decline. Read More

Hist Psychiatry 2012 Mar;23(89 Pt 1):40-51

School of Social Sciences, University of Bangor, College Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG, UK.

The funeral was a symbolic event in Welsh society, and members of staff and relatives of patients at the Denbigh Asylum shared cultural assumptions about the importance of a final resting place for the body. Formal procedures following the death of a patient were governed by asylum rules and regulations. A Denbigh the asylum chaplain played an important role, both in terms of ministering to the dying and I performing the funeral ceremony. Read More

BJOG 2012 Jul 16;119(8):987-97. Epub 2012 May 16.

Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre, Manchester Academic Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

Objective: To describe the experiences, knowledge and views of both parents and professionals regarding the consent process for perinatal postmortem.

Design: Internet-based survey.

Setting: Obstetricians, midwives and perinatal pathologists currently working in the UK. Read More

Int J Psychoanal 2012 Apr 24;93(2):341-53. Epub 2012 Jan 24.

Département de Psychologie, Université de Poitiers, 97 avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France.

Freud's ambivalent relations with medicine are well known. Based on his relatively unknown text, A religious experience, published in 1928, the authors present an analysis of the internal reasons for this conflict. Responding to a letter from an American doctor, who tells him about his reactions to an autopsy and the influence it had on his religious faith, Freud suggests an analysis that leads him to make a surprising slip. Read More

PLoS One 2012 28;7(3):e33075. Epub 2012 Mar 28.

Centre for Global Health Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Background: The Indian Sample Registration System (SRS) with verbal autopsy methods provides estimations of cause specific mortality for maternal deaths, where the majority of deaths occur at home, unregistered. We aim to examine factors that influence physician agreement and coding choices in assigning causes of death from verbal autopsies.

Methodology/principal Findings: Among adult deaths identified in the SRS, pregnancy-related deaths recorded in 2001-2003 were assigned ICD-10 codes by two independent physicians. Read More

Asclepio 2011 ;63(2):349-78

Yale University.

The sense of the real, or the material - the dead body - as an inextricable part of the sacred does not disappear in the secular environment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article analyzes specific humanitarian narratives centered on the practice of autopsy and mummification, in which the traces of Catholicism act as a kind of spectral discourse of the imagination, where the real is configured in forms of the uncanny, the monstrous or the sacred. Read More

AJR Am J Roentgenol 2012 Mar;198(3):W323

Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2012 Jun 22;39(6):659-65. Epub 2012 May 22.

Department of Radiology, University Hospital Brugmann, Brussels, Belgium.

Objectives: To compare prospectively maternal acceptance of fetal and neonatal virtuopsy with that of conventional autopsy and to determine the confidence with which magnetic resonance (MR) virtuopsy can be used to diagnose normality/abnormality of various fetal anatomical structures.

Methods: MR and/or computed tomography virtuopsy and conventional autopsy were offered to 96 women (102 fetuses/neonates) following termination of pregnancy (TOP), intrauterine fetal death (IUFD) or neonatal death. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the effect on maternal acceptance of virtuopsy and/or conventional autopsy of the age of the mother, gestational age at TOP or delivery after IUFD, order of pregnancy, parity, religion, type of caregiver obtaining consent and reason for death. Read More

Rev Med Chil 2011 Apr 25;139(4):535-41. Epub 2011 Aug 25.

Servicio de Neurocirugía, Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires, Santiago, Chile.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp was painted by Rembrandt Harmen-szoon van Rijn at the early age of 26 years. In the XVII century these paintings were very popular in the Netherlands, and in this country the cities flourished as cultural centers searching the anatomy knowledge. Read More

Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2012 Jun;33(2):147-51

Forensic Medicine Center, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The medicolegal death investigation system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is unique in the world. It is exclusively derived from Islamic judiciary based on Shari'ah law, which is the definitive Islamic law or doctrine. This law is applied on Saudi citizens as well as foreigners. Read More