I
interviewed ten individuals varying in age from teens to adults, asking them, "If given the following question; what do you believe? Some religious beliefs
prohibit what they consider to be desecrating of a dead body by the performance
of an autopsy. However, if due to a criminal reasons, such as a homicide, the
need for an autopsy is apparent, should the religious beliefs be ignored?”
All of the
interviewees agreed that in such a situation, the autopsy should be preformed.
Their reasons however, varied. For example, Emily Rendon said, “ If an autopsy
isn’t preformed, then the police may not have anything to go on to capture [the
one responsible for the] murder, and more people could be murdered, because of
one person’s belief.” Therefore, she strongly believes that an autopsy should
be performed so as not to give the murderer the chance to cause harm to another
family.
A different
reason, that promotes the pro- autopsy side, was given by Dana Vollmer, who said
that she, “ Is all for respecting peoples’ religious beliefs, but at the same
time when it comes to something where law is involved and there needs to be an
answer, than they shouldn’t have to neglect doing an autopsy just because
somebody is against it. It is important to find the truth.”
Dana’s
perspective on law leads to another question. Is neglecting the families
religious beliefs also neglecting the family the Right given to them by the
Constitution? Meaning does continuing to do the autopsy take away their freedom
of religious practice? This topic was touched upon by two other individuals,
who made two very different statements.
Police Lieutenant Cathleen
Rendon [A.K.A. Wanda Turner] stated both
her belief on this topic, and how she believes it should be dealt with. She
said, “ The Constitution has a freedom of religion, etc. So if you’re free to
practice any religion that you want, and the Government can’t dictate to you
the tenants of that religion, then if your established religious beliefs are
such that the body can’t be desecrated then, [she believes] there shouldn’t be
an autopsy.” She also made another statement that was contradictory to her
first by describing something that she called “The Greater Good”; in which she
exclaimed that, in this case, in order
to do “The Greater Good” the autopsy would need to be preformed. So to conclude
all of her beliefs in one, Cathleen stated that, “The police and scientists
should be able to prove at least some of the evidence without desecrating the body.
They should explore all options to prove the homicide, before violating
religious beliefs.”
Mark Wiktorek, a Detective
on the Police Department, also mentioned the “Law of the land” in his interview. He said that, “ In other
countries religious beliefs supersede the law of the land (in this case the
autopsy is the law of the land), where they have to be buried within 24 hours…
but being in law enforcement, I believe that the scientific community should
trump the religious belief; especially in a homicide investigation where
physical evidence could be missed, or tampered with, or lost.” Which means that
the autopsy should be performed to help in the solving of the investigation in
case errors were made elsewhere in the investigation process.
Both Cathleen and Mark
have their own opinion on how to deal with the religious beliefs as pertaining
to the Constitution. And, although Mark’s error check idea is original, it seems
that Cathleen’s idea of “The Greater Good” is a more popular answer. In fact
two other individuals, Christine, a 37 year old woman caring for her new born
child, and Efosa Asemota a 28 year old man, mentioned providing “Justice” is
what is most important in this situation.
Christine said that
despite their beliefs, “people should consider doing something scientific for
the greater good of society, and that religion should be about helping people
and caring about people, rather than caring about just their own religious
views. They should consider using science to help all.”
Can religion really be
allied with science, or will the two remain to be enemies forever? Efosa said,
“ religion and science are both related and different at the same time.” He
said that, “ If the Lord wanted the body to be investigated, then the need for
that will occur. That the body must be examined for justice to take place.”
Whether or not religion
and science will ever “get along” isn’t yet known, but it is reasonable to say
that despite religious belief, during a homicide investigation an autopsy
should be preformed whether it be for the greater good, to give justice, or to
help check an idea if an error occurs in another area of the investigation.
