The obligation of the medical profession to ensure that autopsy is available for AIDS patients is analyzed from the historical perspective of the risk and sacrifice inherent in medicine and the ethical obligations and responsibilities of physicians. Inappropriately avoiding autopsies in AIDS patients causes potential harm to the decedent, the loss of all benefits derived from autopsies, and harm to the professional status of physicians. The practice of medicine now requires doctors to take personal risks for their patients, as it did up until the advent of penicillin, and presents challenges of conscience and dedication for all who strive to heal.
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Richard M. Ratzan (1988) studied this question.
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