Autopsy details are confidential until such time: Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad

Autopsy details are confidential until such time: Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad



Posted by admin
Monday, 09 March 2009 09:53

(Bernama) -- Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad said the public must understand that details of an autopsy are confidential until such time they could be made public.
He said that when the time was right, the authorities would announce details of the autopsy in a court of law.

However, the public were under the misconception that the ministry was concealing information involving criminal cases, added Dr Abdul Latif.

He was speaking to reporters after officiating the launch of the ministry's corporate culture campaign here today.

The deputy minister noted that among the cases which had become "issues" with the public were the death of suspected car thief A. Kugan while in police custody and the alleged sodomy case involving PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's personal assistant Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

"There were many other cases before this, which could not be exposed even to the media, as a matter of medical ethics and professionalism.

Dr Abdul Latif said there were attempts by certain quarters to erode public confidence in the authorities for "concealing" information.

He said hundreds of post-mortems involving criminal cases had been conducted, whereby the details had remained confidential unless they were leaked.

"When this happened, action was taklen against those responsible, including referring them to the Ethics Committee of the Malaysian Medical Council under the Medical Profession Act 1971.