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Her body dissected…

muscle, nerve, and the central nervous system. Dr Squier explains why. For anything other than oncology, brain biopsy is rightly rare. Post-mortem studies reveal changes not seen by other techniques. Advances in immunostaining and other techniques have allowed far more precise classification of tissue components and their disorders. Variant CJD (CreutzfeldtJakob disease) and the current controversy over the pathogenesis of shaken baby syndrome are recent examples where neuropathological research has stimulated new thought and insights, and illustrate why, as a professional group, we must support our colleagues. There is a certain queasiness in the idea of a person’s body being dissected, so doctors who cared for a child can find it hard to ask for an autopsy.5 Education about the value of autopsies, training in how to ask, closer contact between pathologists and clinicians, and involving trained counsellors are all positive steps. Medical charities could help by providing independent explanations and, perhaps, by encouraging the carrying of cards permitting postmortem studies, similar to organ donor cards. Ways to make the autopsy less of an apparent violation are now being considered. Limited post-mortems are already allowed for, as mentioned by Dr Squier. As a medical student I was always struck by the ugly way that cadavers were sewn up after post-mortem. If this could be done in a more cosmetically acceptable fashion, it might go some way towards helping families accept the suggestion. Unfortunately this still leaves the problem of organ retention. Brains are the most commonly retained organ.3 Is it necessary to retain the entire brain? Due to a call for research proposals into less invasive autopsies, the role of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging is being explored in the UK. This might be combined with stereotactically guided biopsies. A keyhole autopsy, with neuropathologists adopting neurosurgical techniques and using limited or even internal approaches in their sampling, is not an impossible development. As this is not just a problem in the UK, such ideas are worth discussing internationally. Hopefully, suggestions like this will allow neuropathology to misquote Mark Twain and say that reports of its death were fortunately exaggerated.