Morgue

A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal.

[2] The euphemisms “Rose Cottage” and “Rainbow’s End”[3] are sometimes used in British hospitals to enable discussion in front of patients and visitors, the latter mainly for children.

To honor these religious rites, many funeral homes install a viewing window, which allows the family to watch as the body is inserted into the retort.

[5] In the UK the NHS has asked health trusts to review mortuary access security and procedures in the wake of the David Fuller case in November 2021.

[9] In practice, local jurisdictions only support sufficient permanent morgue capacity to handle the usual number of fatalities from all causes expected to occur there over time.

Prior to modern times and even sometimes today especially in poorer jurisdictions, in case of any incident causing many deaths in such a short period of time so as to overwhelm a locale's regular mortuary services the bodies would usually be disposed of as quickly as possible, and (often not withstanding the locale's usual customs) will be disposed of by whatever method is most convenient considering the supplies and equipment on hand.

In contrast, modern affluent jurisdictions will usually make every effort to requisition equipment and/or facilities not normally used to store corpses to act as temporary morgues whenever necessary.

In practice, government emergency preparedness procedures usually designate suitable public facilities such as ice rinks to act as morgues if available.