Forensic Autopsies: From the Point of View of Medical Students in Bhuj, Gujarat

Forensic autopsies provide medical knowledge as well as it is an important investigating tool that helps in administration of justice. This cross sectional observational study was conducted to know the knowledge and attitude of medical under graduate students for forensic autopsies. A pretested questionnaire covering various aspects of forensic autopsies was given to the medical undergraduate students of 2nd and 3rd year (part I and II). Being a voluntary participation, total 374 students responded to the questionnaire and the answers were analyzed. It can be concluded that more than 92% of students are well aware of indications and procedure of forensic autopsies. 90.9% opined that forensic autopsies are helpful/required in medical education where 78.1% of students wished to witness more number of forensic autopsies though 97.9% of students denied for post mortem on themselves/relatives. At some stage students were found more emotional than practical as mixed review were received on handing over the body to relative where cause of death is known in MLC cases and mixed reviews for performing post mortems on request of relatives without informing police. So still there exists a need to work on legal views of students.