The executive officer of the Mississippi State Board of Health or a county health officer may petition in like manner as is provided in Section 41-37-9 a circuit judge, chancellor, or county judge in any county in which a person dies or where the body of such deceased person may be, and such circuit judge, chancellor, or county judge may order an autopsy to be performed upon the body of such deceased person in the interest of public health and welfare in cases where the cause of death is not known and cannot be determined with reasonable certainty without an autopsy and when it would appear to such judge or chancellor by such petition and evidence in support thereof that death may have been due to communicable disease or contagious disease or to poison, foreign substance, radiation or for any other reason exact knowledge as to which would be of benefit to the public health and welfare. In such cases the same fees as specified in criminal investigations to the autopsy physician and chemist shall be allowed by the board of supervisors out of the general fund of the county in which such petition is filed, except that no fee shall be allowed and paid to any physician or chemist who is a regular salaried employee of the state or county. A copy of the report of the autopsy physician and chemist in such cases shall be filed with the clerk of the court in which such order was entered, with the county health officer of such county and with the executive officer of the state board of health.
Structure Mississippi Code
§ 41-37-3. Purposes for which autopsy may be performed
§ 41-37-5. Who may perform autopsy
§ 41-37-7. Liability of physician performing autopsy
§ 41-37-9. Autopsy under court order; procedure
§ 41-37-11. Use of chemical analysis in criminal investigations
§ 41-37-15. Fees of physician and chemist
§ 41-37-17. Payment of disinterment expenses
§ 41-37-19. Admissibility of evidence obtained through autopsy in civil case
§ 41-37-21. Physician or chemist may be subpoenaed in criminal case
§ 41-37-23. Autopsy may be ordered on petition of certain health officials
§ 41-37-25. Autopsy may be performed when consent thereto is given