The Inquiry

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.