From Autopsy to Virtopsy

The dissection belongs to the history of medicine. It includes autopsy, whose purpose is to determine causes of death, both within the context of scientific researches, and in the judicial context known as “forensic pathology”. For a few years now, a new technical device called “virtopsy” has been modifying representations and professional practices by the introduction of the medical imaging, in order to realise the so-called “virtual” autopsies. This article investigates the changes occurred on the perceptions, the sensations, the practices and uses of the forensic scientists and the radiologists dealing with corpses. It highlights the importance and modification of the sensory cultures, regarding in particular the touch and the sight, the hypertrophy of the eye and the distancing from the bodies that virtopsy postulates.