Awareness of medical students towards medicolegal autopsy in Barabanki, U.P.

Autopsy implies examination of the dead body with a view to searching primarily for the cause of death. It is divided into Medico-legal autopsy and Academic autopsies. The autopsy can make an important contribution to medical education. Present study is carried out to determine the awareness of medical students towards autopsy. Two hundred sixteen medical students of 2nd and 3rd year MBBS were randomly selected for the study. The students were asked to respond anonymously to a set of 12 questions. 85.2% of the students agreed that autopsy is necessary in medical education. (92.6%) respondents suggested that medical students should actively participate in performing autopsies. The majority of the students (202, 93.5%) felt that autopsy should not be scrapped from the medical curriculum. 56.5% of students do not want to specialise in forensic medicine. The study showed that exposure of students to autopsy is important to their medical education.