Audit of the Management of Organs Retained for Forensic Examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner (Report No. DODIG 2024 062)

Audit of the Management of Organs Retained for Forensic Examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner (Report No. DODIG-2024-062)

Audit

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General originally published the "Audit of the Management of Organs Retained for Forensic Examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner" to the dodig.mil website on March 18, 2024. We have removed redactions based on public statements by DoD officials reported in the media after the public release of the report. We reposted the report on October 9, 2024, to remove redactions on pages 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, and 59 in light of the public statements.

The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness requested that the DoD Office of Inspector General review the management of policies, processes, and procedures associated with organs retained for examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES). The Under Secretary also requested that we review the process related to notification and disposition requests for retained organs.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether DoD officials effectively managed the retention and disposition of organs examined during forensic examinations by AFMES.

*If you were the person authorized to direct disposition (usually next of kin) for a decedent who had a forensic examination performed by AFMES and you believe that DoD may have retained your loved one's organ, you may request additional information by contacting ​[email protected] with your contact information and the name of the deceased. Additional general information can found on DoD's AFMES web page https://health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Health-Readiness/AFMES.

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