An Ashdod court rejected the police's request to autopsy the
body of a man who died of cardiac arrest and determined that
the law does not even have grounds for demanding an autopsy
in that case. The decision was reached through the
involvement of Rabbi Eliezer Hanfling and Atty. Moshe
Almaliach of Ashdod.
On Monday morning 47-year-old Ashdod resident Meir Twito woke
up with chest pains. Paramedics identified shortness of
breath and heart attack symptoms. A few minutes later, while
receiving medical treatment, he suffered cardiac arrest and
passed away on the spot. The physician who pronounced him
dead named heart failure as the cause of death, saying there
were no signs of violence nor any suspicion of criminal
activity.
Yet the Southern District Attorney instructed Ashdod police
to submit a request to the court to perform an autopsy,
claiming that the cause of death was unclear. The body was
held in the deceased's home for hours in the extreme heat
that has hit the country this week, while the Chevra Kadisha
waited for permission to transfer it to the morgue. For hours
local activists tried to protect kovod hameis by
working to bring the body to burial.
When the police request came before a judge at the Ashdod
Courthouse, Atty. Rabbi Almaliach and Rabbi Hanfling claimed
that the law contains no grounds for the police and district
attorney's autopsy request. The judge upheld their argument,
saying that the request had no legal basis.
Only after the judge's ruling was the body released for
burial at the Ashdod Cemetery.
Rabbi Hanfling said that the District Attorney's Office is
constantly making it difficult for families to bury their
loved ones, and in many cases they have issued unfounded
requests for autopsies. He said clear guidelines should be
set to prevent the District Attorney's Office from issuing
needless requests which have led in the past to incidents of
disrespect for the dead.
