High Court bars autopsies for infants who died in Jerusalem daycare — ZAKA

The High Court of Justice has ruled that autopsies will not be performed on the two infants who died Monday in an unlicensed Jerusalem daycare facility, according to the ZAKA organization, which filed a petition to the court on behalf of the families.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled earlier that autopsies could be performed, but after hearing arguments today, the High Court accepts ZAKA’s petition.

The earlier court decision had sparked mass Haredi protests in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and other locations.

Dror Shoshim, the attorney who represented the families in court for ZAKA, describes the ruling as “an important decision demonstrating humane sensitivity and respect for the dead.”

The families, who are ultra-Orthodox, opposed the autopsies on religious grounds. Jewish law in general proscribes autopsies on the grounds that the human body is sacred and thus should not be tampered with after death, and urges that funerals be held as quickly as possible after a person dies. But Jewish law does permit autopsies in some situations involving saving another life.