Failure to Autopsy: The Otto Warmbier Case
Published on: 27th December, 2017
OCLC Number/Unique Identifier: 7379410529
Coroner and medical examiner offices are charged with the medicolegal investigation of deaths to determine the cause and manner of death. We describe the recent high-profile case of Otto Warmbier, who tragically died shortly after his return in a coma from North Korea and in which the coroner failed to conduct a complete autopsy, and failed to satisfy the needs of the local, national, and international communities.
Medico legal death investigation offices, including both medical examiner and coroner offices, have a legal responsibility and duty to investigate deaths in the public interest for public safety and public health purposes. Although, they serve the families of the deceased as they can, their raison d’être and priority is service to the greater public good. Thus, they may conduct investigations and even autopsies over the objections of the next-of-kin. Full investigations include a complete forensic autopsy. The utilitarian public interest should, within the constraints of the office resources, drive the decision of whether to autopsy or not. Failure to autopsy can sometimes constitute a breach of faith that the public entrusts in these offices. Empirically, this seems to be a greater problem in coroner jurisdictions than in medical examiner offices. Specifically, we believe the recent case of Otto Warmbier is such a case.
Search by University/Institution
Enter your University/Institution to find colleagues at HSPI.
Ensuring author's satisfaction with
- Friendly and hassle-free publication process
- Less production time of articles
- Constructive peer-review
- Enhancing journal reputation
- Regular feedback system
- Quick response to authors' queries
Most Viewed Keywords
- Textile
- T. cruzii
- Paraffin-wax
- Dyspepsia
- Relative bone density
- SARS-CoV-2
- Vasculitis: Mastocites
- Undescended testis
- Abscess
- Children with cancer
- Loneliness
- Hypercholesterolemia during pregnancy
- Inadvertent bleb
- COVID-19
- Rehabilitation
- Coronary artery
- So-called idiopathic scoliosis
- Meigs
- Natural radionuclides
- Patients
Search Articles by Country
Get all latest articles in all Heighten Science Publications Inc journals by country.
Testmonials
''Co-operation of Archives of Surgery and Clinical Research journal is appreciable. I'm impressed at the promptness of the publishing staff and the professionalism displayed. Thank you very much for y...
Anıl Gokce
Your journal co-operation is very appreciable and motivational. I am really thankful to your journal and team members for the motivation and collaboration to publish my work.
Assistant Professor, UCLAS Uttaranchal University,...
Archna Dhasmana
I am to express my view that Heighten Science Publications are reliable quick even after peer review process. I hope and wish the publications will go a long way in disseminating science to many inter...
College of Fisheries, CAU(I), Tripura, India
Ajit Kumar Roy
Journal of Pulmonary and Respiratory Research is good journal for respiratory research purposes. It takes 2-3 weeks maximum for review of the manuscript to get published and any corrections to be made...
Divya Khanduja
You are such a nice person. Your journal co-operation is very appreciable and motivational.
Department of Biotechnology, Uttaranchal college o...
Archna Dhasmana
Thank you for your attitude and support. I am sincerely grateful to you and the entire staff of the magazine for the high professionalism and fast quality work. Thank you very much!
USA
Igor Klepikov
I, Muhammad Sarwar Khan, am serving as Editor on Archives of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (ABB). I submitted an editorial titled, 'Edible vaccines to combat Infectious Bursal Disease of poultry' for ...
University of Agriculture, Pakistan
Muhammad Sarwar Khan
I want to thank you for our collaboration. You were fast and effective with a positive spirit of teamwork. I am truly excited from our collaboration. You were like always fast, efficient and accurate...
Aikaterini Solomou
Submission of paper was smooth, the review process was fast. I had excellent communication and on time response from the editor.
Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria
Ayokunle Dada
The submission is very easy and the time from submission to response from the reviewers is short. Correspondence with the journal is nice and rapid.
Catrin Henriksson
