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Photo: Herzl Yosef
Professor Yehua Hiss
Photo: Herzl Yosef

Forensics institute to pay soldier's parents NIS 2 million

Judge says when he signed consent form father was not aware autopsy of his soldier son would include taking body part samples, keeping them at forensics institute

The State of Israel, Professor Yehua Hiss, chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine and two other physicians were ordered to pay NIS 2 million ($540,000) in damages to the parents of an IDF soldier whose body parts were left at the institute and not buried.

 

The gag order on the ruling, which was issued seven months ago, was lifted on Thursday.

 

In September 2001 the forensics institute performed an autopsy on the body of an IDF soldier who had shot himself in the head with an M-16 assault rifle, after his father signed a consent form.

 

The soldier was buried several hours after the autopsy, but the soldier's family learned about a month later that samples of his body tissue were kept in jars at the institute.

 

The family sued a year later, claiming that the consent form signed by the father was invalid as it did not specify the institute's intent to extract tissue and body part samples and keep them at the institute.

 

They claimed that the father was under the impression that pathologists would examine the area around the head wound and not perform a full autopsy.

 

In his ruling, Jerusalem Magistrates' Court Judge Yoram Noam said that when he signed the consent form the father was not aware the procedure would include taking samples of his son's body tissue and keeping them at Abu Kabir.

 

The judge said there was reasonable cause to believe the plaintiff would reconsider giving his consent to the procedure had he known what it would entail.

 

The judge also said the incident resulted in the emergence of the father's mental illness and determined that he was permanently handicapped.

 

The father was awarded NIS 2 million in damages, and the mother was awarded another NIS 50,000 ($about 13,500).

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.22.09, 22:52
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