An Ashdod court rejected the police’s request to perform an autopsy on 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.

(By Betzalel Kahn for Dei’ah veDibur)