he died of foolishness...It’s amazing how NOBODY wants autopsies of their kin who die under the MOST CIRCUMSPECT situations.
My pop died from a brain aneurysm and the blood was there to prove it. He had had 2 heart attacks, a stroke and an aneurysm before the fatal one.
And my mother STILL got an autopsy done.
But here???? Nah!!!!! Why bother? He probably died of old age.
I certainly respect the families wishes. They have all kinds of tests and xrays to work with that were taken when he was alive.
Autopsies are important and valuable.
At Boston City Hospital in the 1930s, the autopsy rate was 100%. I still use the data from those old, old autopsies at least once a week.
The autopsy rate today for medical deaths is effectively zero. The only autopsies which are even close to “routine” are those of homicide victims, to recover the evidence.
It’s too bad, we still have a lot to learn. Interns are the ones who have to ask the families of the deceased, and it’s as hard a job now as it was 40 years ago when I was doing it.
But the culture has shifted, death is feared much more, invokes fault much more, invokes blame much more, and for most families it’s an opportunity to deny “the system” something “the system” wants.
Warmbier’s family is Jewish, and media sources say that Otto was “active in Hillel and went on Birthright.” Jewish tradition and custom is to not approve of autopsy. If there was not much to be gained by one vis a vis his condition that MRI scans and other other tests have already uncovered, then the family may have chosen to simply not allow one for religious reasons.
The hospital should have blood samples. In three weeks, analyses should disclose much of what is needed.
If he’s Jewish I understand. If not, I don’t.
I agree with the parents. If this were my son, he would not have an autopsy either.
The public’s curiosity does not outweigh the murder victim’s right to privacy.
I wonder if the U.S government convinced them not to have an autopsy.
he died of foolishness...This is a mistake. No autopsy on Scalia? Also a mistake.
This would suggest that the parents may be concerned that an autopsy would show the death was the result of a suicide.
I think it is imperative that a cause of death be determined. Without it the US has no basis for retaliation.
If claim of murder, maybe political, how can one not be performed? Otto did not die of natural causes. The feds should step in, else we ignore his death and move on.
It’s a stupid decision. The young man was stupid enough to go to NK and was stupid enough to steal a poster. Now the family won’t allow the gathering of evidence necessary for taking action against NK. The US should just forget the whole incident, we owe the family nothing.
I don’t have children, but I fought my cousin when my mother died in the hospital where he was a doctor, and he wanted an autopsy for teaching purposes. She was the most important person in my world, and what someone else might learn didn’t even start to balance what I would feel to have her body disfigured. I completely support the parents choice in this. Let the family decide what they can handle when they’re in the middle of overwhelming grief.