Nobody wants to think about their loved ones dying, let alone being opened and examined on the autopsy table. For many of us, there’s something sacrilegious about a medical examiner (sorry Dr. G), no matter how respectful, plunking your aunt’s innards down on a scale and weighing them. But autopsies can yield a plethora of information, marking the pathology of a disease or tracing the deadly path of a weapon. And you don’t always have to slice open dead people to do it.

In a virtual autopsy, medical examiners scan the corpses and then use tools such as MRI and CT imaging to get the 3-D answers they seek about cause of death. A virtual autopsy could serve as a less-invasive, less subjective, longer-lasting, digitized record of death, as well as an option for people who traditionally object to autopsies for religious or other reasons.