[Medico-legal autopsy]

Today's clinical autopsy has to satisfy teaching, research and questions of good clinical practice. In a sense, clinical autopsy finds itself as a subject between the physician and his patient but also between clinicians and pathologists. Medico-legal autopsy, on the other hand, is subject to an official act. It can be performed against the will of the deceased or his family. For clinicians or practitioners it is not possible to directly order medico-legal autopsies. However, they are obliged to inform the police in every case of uncertain death (non-natural death, aussergewöhnlicher Todesfall). Not only the questions to be answered do vary between clinical und medico-legal autopsy but also there are remarkable differences of technique. Thus, neither can clinical autopsy be replaced by medico-legal one nor is it in any way accurate to perform clinical autopsy in possibly forensic cases.