Morgue

morgue [mȯrg]

(medicine)

A place where dead bodies are held pending identification and disposition.

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morgue, mortuary

A room or building for the holding and/or identification of dead bodies prior to burial or cremation.

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Morgue 

a place where dead bodies are received, stored, identified, and disposed, and where forensic medical examinations are conducted. In the USSR, morgues are a part of bureaus of forensic medical examination, hospitals, clinics, research institutes, and subdepartments of forensic medicine.

In contemporary practice, the term “morgue” has been retained only for forensic medical institutions; in hospitals, autopsies are performed in departments of pathological anatomy, where the bodies of patients who have died in medical facilities are brought. Morgues receive the bodies of unidentified persons, of victims of violent death or suspected violent death, of patients who have died in medical facilities when no diagnosis has been established or when investigative agencies have received complaints of improper or illegal treatment, of patients dead on arrival at medical facilities, and of victims of sudden death if the cause has not been established by a physician.

A morgue consists of a room for examining dead bodies (autopsy room) and of auxiliary rooms.