[Several reliable legal regulations of East German legislation in relation to the forensic medicine specialty].

Abstract

The authors treat questions involving post-mortem examinations and autopsies, as regulated in the "Order Pertaining to Post-mortem Medical Examinations" in the former GDR. The administrative autopsy is of special importance in this respect. This regulation, which has been demanded by German physicians for more than a century and has existed for a long time in Austria (1857), should finally be introduced in the Federal Republic of Germany as well. It should at least be retained in the new Federal States. In the field of alcohol-related traffic law, the authors advocate a reduction of the blood-alcohol limit throughout Germany, even if the zero limit in the former GDR does not appear to be implementable. The time-tested regulations applying to organ graftings are presented as the third topic. In the GDR there was a uniform order based on the right to object.