Ashdod residents are up in arms following a demand by police
to have an autopsy performed on a baby that died suddenly
Sunday morning. Through the intervention of Atty. Rabbi Moshe
Elmaliach and ZAKA's legal department, the court denied the
request for an autopsy, except for a blood test. If the
police persist, the case will be turned over to the High
Court.
Sunday morning a chareidi mother brought the one-and-a-half-
year-old in her arms to a market in Rova Chet owned by two
Hatzoloh volunteers. The sobbing woman asked them to save her
sick daughter, who was unconscious and suffering from high
fever, but their efforts failed.
A short time later the police demanded that the body be
delivered to the Abu Kabir Forensics Institute for an
autopsy, but the family refused to allow this violation of
kovod hameis.
The baby was taken to the morgue at the Ashdod Cemetery where
hundreds gathered at the doorway to prevent the body from
being carted off.
Atty. Elmaliach explained to the judge that halochoh forbids
autopsies, except for external examinations, x-rays and blood
tests. The judge ordered an examination be performed in
stages starting with a blood test to try to determine the
cause of death, followed by x-rays and only later the removal
of tissue from the head. If these steps did not aid in the
investigation of the cause of death, the two sides were
instructed to return to the court for a hearing to consider
the possibility of a general autopsy.
Atty. Elmaliach objected, saying that removing tissues
constitutes a partial autopsy. He demanded the judge's
decision be delayed pending a High Court appeal. The judge
agreed to limit the initial investigation to a blood test, x-
ray and external exam, but the police later insisted a tissue
sample be taken from the head as well.
At this point hundreds of protesters gathering at the
cemetery in Ashdod and at Kikar HaShabbat in Jerusalem. The
police sent in heavy forces to maintain order, but the
protesters prevented them from removing the baby's body from
the cemetery. Late into the night talks were held between the
police and askonim, who wanted the procedures to be
conducted at the local hospital rather than Abu Kabir.
Protests spread throughout the Geula section of Jerusalem,
and included burning garbage on Bar Ilan street late into the
night.
In a similar case several months ago forensics experts at the
institute completely disregarded a judge's order to perform
an autopsy in stages.
Rabbonim and public figures say that MRI scanning allows
forensics experts to determine the cause of death with a
purely external examination. With a relatively small
investment the State could purchase a machine and almost
completely stop performing conventional autopsies.
Late Sunday night anonymous chareidi figures broke into the
morgue at the cemetery and took away the body without the
knowledge of the local rabbonim, askonim or family
members.
