[The medical autopsy: its indications, contraindications, the modalities of its implementation, its cost and its limits. Autopsy of the medical autopsy].

The decline of the medical autopsy, in spite of the uncontested recognition of its utility, is not to be any more proved. By summarizing the legal frame of this exceptional act, we tried to identify the indications, the contraindications, the precautions for use, the limits, the technical, legal and ethical constraints and the costs of this diagnostic and therapeutic tool. The discussion underlines that the main brake in the realization of the autopsies could be its too strict French legal frame.