The Model Postmortem Examinations Act in the State of Connecticut, 1969-1974

Five years following the 1969 passage of legislation patterned after the Model Postmortem Examinations Act, Connecticut has a central laboratory with administrative, autopsy, and toxicology facilities; 24-hour statewide reporting deaths; a records and data-processing system; and affiliation with a university health center. The state's population density, number and size of municipalities and police departments, absence of county government, and judicial appointment of coroner's were unique geographic-political features confronting implementation of the legislation. To effect a transition from the preexisting system, and because of the number of deaths reported and physicians involved, a dual system was developed for examinations and certification of deaths which differentiated autopsies performed at the central laboratory from those at community hospitals. Dissemination of procedures and forms for medicolegal autopsies conducted at community hospitals is planned in the near future. Although educational programs for graduates and law enforcement personnel have been initiated, there still exists a need for more active undergraduate and postgraduate training and a program of research and statistical reporting. Implementation of the statutes during a five-year period in which supplemental legislation and regulations were passed, changes that occurred in state administration, and budgetary restrictions mandated by economic recession has, however, resulted in the nucleus of a modern state medicolegal investigative system--a separately budgeted medical examiner's office, supervised by an independent administrative commission and located on the grounds of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.