Post-mortem now allowed to be conducted past sunset; to augment organ donation

The Union Government will now allow the post- mortem procedures to be conducted after sunset with adequate infrastructure. This decision is to promote ease of living by reducing burden imposed due to compliance to government processes, the health ministry said in a statement released on Monday evening.

The changes will be incorporated from 15th November 2021 to benefit those mourning the deceased in addition to promoting organ donation as the new procedure eases the process of organ harvesting, to be done within a stipulated time frame after post-mortem.

The representations and decision implications were examined by a technical committee in the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) to ascertain that enough infrastructure is available to conduct post-mortems at night. It was verified that some institutes are already performing night-time post-mortem in cases of immediacy and ascertained that the improvement in technology has made night time post-mortem in hospitals feasible. All the lighting and other surgical requirements are now available in most of the hospitals, who can now conduct the surgical procedure at night earlier restricted to daytime.

The protocol stipulates that post-mortem for organ donation be taken up on priority and be conducted even after sunset at the hospitals which have the infrastructure for conducting such post-mortem on a regular basis.

The fitness and adequacy of infrastructure of conducting the procedure is to be assessed by the hospital-in-charge to ensure that there is no dilution of evidentiary value. The government also mandated video recording of all the procedures conducted in the night, to rule out any suspicion and preserve it for future reference if required for legal purposes.

The cases under categories such as homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies, suspected foul play have been excluded from the notification and cannot be subjected for post-mortem during night time unless instructed by officials in authority.