Richtlijn ‘Lijkschouw voor behandelend artsen’

• The central theme of the guideline ‘Post-mortem examination for attending doctors’ is that the primary aim of the post-mortem examination is not to ascertain death as such, but to investigate whether the person died of natural or unnatural causes.
• The guideline gives indications for the content of the post-mortem in order to make this differentiation reliable.
• Only in cases of natural death is the attending doctor permitted to fill in a death certificate.
• In cases of possible unnatural death where a crime or an imputable act may have been committed, a municipal coroner should be called in.
• Post-mortem should be carried out as quickly as possible after notification, with the exception of nocturnal deaths in nursing homes, or comparable care institutions, when this decease is expected.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.