General Question

Quagmire's avatar

How much does it cost to exhume a body and have a private autopsy done on it?

Asked by Quagmire (2088points) August 8th, 2009

I see this in the news a lot. There’s talk about doing this for the Taconic Parkway woman who killed eight people driving in the wrong direction. I wonder how much it costs.

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6 Answers

marinelife's avatar

From ExpertLaw: “And, if you do happen to get the order, expect the whole ordeal to cost two to three times what the funeral cost. ”

(“So,the typical funeral with burial is about $7,000.” From FuneralPlan)

“to pay for a private autopsy, which may cost $2000 or more.” From Medscape

Ame_Evil's avatar

The cost of a shovel and medical textbook if you plan on doing it yourself D:

AstroChuck's avatar

I’ll do it for $500.

Quagmire's avatar

@AstroChuck, why doesn’t that surprise me? :)

You know what DOES surprise me? That nobody said “Why would anyone want to do an autopsy on a dead person’s private?”

AstroChuck's avatar

I’ll even do it for $250 if I get to keep the head afterwards.

Darwin's avatar

It will vary a lot depending on a number of factors. One example (in Canadian dollars) is given here:

Professional Services
• Planning, coordination and supervision of the exhumation process $250.00
• Procurement of exhumation license, authorization and preparation of other
documents $250.00
• Cremation Services $400.00

Transportation
• Use of funeral coach $125.00

Casket or Container
• Wooden cremation container $250.00
• Hardwood or marble urn $350.00

Third Party Expenses
• Cemetery charges including the opening, closing and restoration of the plot $500.00
• Transportation of Urn $75.00
Total Average Cost $2,200.00

Then if you are wanting an autopsy done, you may be paying for that, which seems to be around $2000 or so, depending on what all tests need to be run.

Then it depends on what you want to do with the body after the exhumation, Do you want another funeral? Do you want a nice clean coffin? Do you want to just get someone to bring in a backhoe and then have the cemetery staff rebury the coffin?

And, of course, to get someone exhumed to begin with requires a court order, so that brings in a lawyer, and so on.

However, if it is a possible case of homicide and law enforcement wants to check the body, you wouldn’t pay for the process, unless you wanted some sort of ceremony.

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