Drugs in a body

[Lakitu]

On Monday my friends Aunt was found dead in her flat.

My friend was tellling me that his family couldn't arrange a funeral because they had to wait until the pathologist's report to be issued and that if there was any non prescribed drugs found in her system then the family would not be allowed to cremate her and burial was their only option just in case the police needed to dig up her body later in life just in case foul play was suspected.

Surely not?

What about all the druggies who die in the UK everyday? Surely they are not all buried 'just in case'??

[Ethel]

That is a load of nonsense.

[Lakitu]

That's what I thought when he told me! LOL

[Ethel]

There are a very few, very few exceptional cases where a body can't be cremated and the coroner will issue an order for burial, but if poisons or drugs are found in the body it is enough to record the fact, along with the usual post mortem results.

Exhumation will prove nothing more.

[Lakitu]

I said the same, that all records will be made and kept and nothing more could be proved, generally, but he was adamant it was all true.

As it turns out, there were no drugs in her system, but him saying that got me wondering if it was me that was wrong.

Thanks for your confirmation, Ethel :o)

[Ice.Maiden]

If foul play was suspected, then, as in the Harold Shipman case, a body COULD be exhumed, as some poisons remain in the body for a while, but in the normal way of things, this wouldn't be done.