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The doctor in the 2019 story was Ben Margolis, founder of the Autopsy Center of Chicago. He offered some families the option to record or livestream an autopsy, while also presenting the resulting footage as a possible educational resource. That is a historical account, not evidence that the service still livestreams today.
Who is Ben Margolis?
Dan Robitzski’s Futurism profile, published September 25, 2019 and updated September 27, 2019, describes Margolis as the founder of the Autopsy Center of Chicago, which he established in 2010. The profile follows a January 2019 livestream in which Margolis wore a head-mounted GoPro and explained the procedure to viewers.
Before developing his own platform, Margolis streamed on Facebook Live. Recordings and edited clips were also made available through Autopsy.Online. He said he wanted viewers to see the procedure from a directed, close perspective rather than from a stationary camera.
Why offer families a recorded or livestreamed autopsy?
Answers for families
Some families in the profile sought answers about a death or a sense of closure. Margolis also said autopsy findings could point to inherited conditions and give living relatives information to discuss with their health-care providers. These are reasons families might pursue an autopsy, not a guarantee that one will identify a cause, uncover a hereditary condition, or ease grief. As Margolis put it, “Families come to us for closure, for grief, to find out what happened.”
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Learning for viewers
Margolis described the recordings as a way to give students access to views of an autopsy they might not otherwise have, especially students without hands-on access to cadavers. His longer-term idea was an annotated archive and a virtual “body map”: viewers could choose a body part and watch a clip of that organ being removed and examined. The 2019 article reports this as an ambition, not as a confirmed feature available today.
How did the reported consent and privacy process work?
According to the Futurism profile, Margolis spoke with families before raising the possibility of recording. The article says his consent forms distinguished permission for photographs, video recording, livestreaming, and student attendance. He said he would stop if a family seemed hesitant, and that he did not offer recording in cases involving children or active criminal investigations.
The profile also reports that he described covering faces and identifying marks and withholding names and personal details. These are practices attributed to Margolis in the article; the profile does not independently audit how consent or privacy safeguards were implemented.
What ethical questions did the livestreams raise?
Bioethicists quoted in the profile focused on respect for the deceased and family, privacy, the recording’s purpose and audience, identity disclosure, and the circumstances that led a family to request an autopsy. Their remarks are individual perspectives reported in that article, not a formal consensus statement.
- Respect and privacy: Amy McGuire of Baylor College of Medicine said, “The primary concerns with livestreaming autopsies are making sure that you are respecting the wishes and the privacy of the decedent and his or her family, and that you are treating the body with respect.”
- Purpose and disclosure: Mark Aulisio, then chair of the bioethics department at Case Western Reserve University, said, “It seems like a lot would depend on the purpose of the autopsy and whether the identity of the subject was going to be disclosed.”
- Timing and sensitivity: NYU bioethicist Brendan Parent noted, “Autopsy usually happens when we are suspicious about cause of death, which often involves private or sensitive life stories.” His concern underscores why the way and timing of an invitation matter, as well as whether the deceased could have anticipated educational use after death.
Is the Autopsy Center of Chicago still livestreaming?
Not according to a later first-person update from the Autopsy.Online creator. In an October 27, 2024 Reddit AMA, the creator wrote: “We’re not livestreaming these days, but still consenting families for video.” That statement supports saying livestreaming had stopped by October 2024 while family-consented video continued. It does not establish the platform’s status in October 2026.
Margolis’s line from the 2019 profile, “Autopsy is always for the living,” captures the rationale he gave for the work. The ethical questions in the same story show why educational value alone cannot settle whether a particular recording should be made or shared.
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