Legal regulations of pathology in Russia

Excerpt

Legislation pertaining to pathology in Russia has remained largely unchanged since the 1980s. Almost all regulations refer to the autopsy and documentation of death. The principle of obligatory autopsy for all patients dying in hospitals has remained unchanged. Permission from relatives (or from the deceased in his lifetime) is not required. On the contrary, if relatives wish to take the body without autopsy, they must apply in written form to the head physician (who, in Russia, is the chief executive officer of a hospital) and explain the reasons for the application. It should be commented that today, in many hospitals, almost all such applications (in the absence of contraindications listed below) are granted without pondering on reasons, and the percentage of postmortem investigations has decreased since the former Soviet era. However, recently, the autopsy percentage appears to be increasing again. …