Opinion No. 60-227
December 20, 1960
TO: Earl M. Coffee, Administrator Miners' Hospital of New Mexico Raton, New Mexico
QUESTION
QUESTION
Can the Administrator of the Miners' Hospital authorize autopsies?
CONCLUSION
No.
OPINION
{*651} ANALYSIS
There is no statutory or common law authority for an Administrator of the Hospital to authorize an autopsy; as a matter of fact, such act would make the Administrator personally liable for mutilation of a dead body. See Love v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, (Tex. Civ. App.), 99 S.W. 2d 646. As a general rule, however, the State Institution would not be liable for damages for an unauthorized autopsy performed therein unless it was permitted with knowledge that it was unauthorized. See Hasselbach v. Mt Sinai Hospital, 173 App. Div. 89, 159 N.Y.S. 376. Normally, the only person who may authorize an autopsy absent legislative authority is a coroner.
By: Boston E. Witt
Assistant Attorney General