AUTOPSIES

Whether or not to carry out an autopsy ought not to be something which changes a lot over time or across countries. At least I would have thought so.

As it happens, it does. The number of autopsies carried out in Denmark has fallen dramatically in recent years, from 2,915 in 2007 to 1,736 in 2010 and a mere 1,120 in 2013. The fall is all the more remarkable, given the dramatic developments during that period in (for example) research into inherited diseases.

Denmark is also out of kilter with the rest of the Nordic world. Only 4% of deaths result in an autopsy, compared with 7% in Norway, 11% in Iceland, 14% in Sweden and 30% in Finland.

Is it because all of those dark Scandinavian murders are carried out in Finnish forests? Or is the reason more prosaic? It is the police who are mostly responsible for ordering an autopsy. Danish police forces were reorganised (and reduced) some years ago, and there is a general feeling that they are short of cash. Not ordering an autopsy is an easy way to save money.

Walter Blotscher