166 Alan Sokobin
ner of death is the fashion in which the cause of death arises. “The manner of death is an opinion separate from the cause of death.”*? All child abuse deaths are homicidal, the killing of one human being by another. Defining it as homicide, however, does not determine the actuality of criminality. Criminal culpability is determined by the criminal justice system. Jewish law is uncomfortable with post mortem examinations.“Judaism requires that a corpse be accorded every sign of respect... Physical assault upon the body is, a fortiori, forbidden in death as well as in life.”3 The prohibition against violating a body is based upon a biblical verse that refers to the treatment of a body of an executed criminal,“ you must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God. ”** The logic of Rabbi Ishmael’s hermeneutic rule’ applies. If the rule is applicable for a criminal who is executed for a capital crime, it can be deduced a fortiori that it should be applied to others who have not been convicted of heinous offenses.
The Talmud has two instructive references to autopsies. One incident involved the question of whether a corpse could be exhumed and examined to determine whether the deceased was an adult or a minor at the time of death. This examination was requested to determine the disposition of an estate. The petition was denied as the knowledge to be gained would only relate to the disposition of an estate and would not aid in the principle of pikku'ah nefesh,*¢ the saving of a life.’
In the Talmud it is clearly stated that an autopsy may be performed on the victim of a murder in order to establish whether the victim was alive at the time of the assault. If he was not alive at the time of the assault, no charge of murder could be brought against the assailant.’®® This is somewhat different from the statutory regulations governing the coroner, which give authority to examine a body only where there is an unexplained or suspicious death.’ It is worth noting, moreover, that if there is a disagreement between the provisions of Jewish law and the requirements of the governmental legal system, Jewish law would respond positively to the requirements of the state.**
The critical element in the response of Jewish law to the authority of the coroner to perform an autopsy is not in the Jew ish attitude toward post mortem examinations. Rather, it is in the operative relationship, which exists between Jewish and govern