Postmortem Examination is also known as what?

• A. Another term for an autopsy, focusing on the examination of a body after death.
• B. The initial survey of the death scene.
• C. The documentation of chain of custody.
• D. The determination of cause of death.

Answer: (A)

Postmortem examination is the formal internal and external examination of a body after death, which is what an autopsy is. This is the best description because an autopsy is the procedures carried out after death to assess injuries, pathology, collect samples, and document findings to help determine what happened. The other options describe related steps or outcomes but not the examination itself: surveying the death scene happens at the scene, not during the postmortem; documenting chain of custody concerns handling of evidence; and determining the cause of death is a result derived from the autopsy findings rather than the examination procedure itself.