Does the word "autopsy" only apply to humans?

Question

When it is done on animals I have only heard the word "necropsy." But in a dictionary it had almost identical definitions. What is proper?

Answer 1

A post-mortem examination is called an autopsy if the performer of the examination is of the same species as the subject of the examination.

A whale's autopsy, then, must be performed by another whale. Highly unlikely.

Auto = self; opsis = sight
Autopsy = viewing oneself
Necro = dead
Necropsy = viewing something dead.

Autopsies are necropsies, but not vice versa.

Answer 2

Scientists have been doing these autopsies on many animals including humans for a long time now. If you have watched the news, you might have seen something about the fossils that have turned up from thousands and thousands of years ago from the dino era and the possiblility of Jesus, maybe?

Answer 3

Necropsy is the term for a post-mortem examination performed on an animal. The prefix 'auto-' means 'self', and so autopsy denotes the human species performing a post-mortem examination on itself or one of its own.

Answer 4

I'm fairly certain that everyone realizes that the terms "illegal alien" and "illegal immigrant" are not indicating that the individual is failing to meet some minimum legal requirement of "human being" or "person". In fact, as aliens or immigrants can only be human beings the proof is right there in the phrase itself. That is, we don't refer to ducks, rocks, or trees as immigrants or aliens -- though ducks do migrate. "Alien" merely indicates a person is a foreign national that is present in another country. "Legal alien" means the person entered and remains in the country according to the laws of the host country's government. "Illegal alien" means the person entered or remains in the country contrary to the laws of the host country. Illegal/legal alien are objective terms and do derive from the behavior of a person. If you think about it, I think you will realize that the objections to the use of the term "illegal alien" derive more from a strategy to legitimize an illegal behavior rather than to prevent the use of an inaccurate term. "Illegal immigrant" was the first generation attempt to do that. Not an accurate term because "immigrant" implies to most of us a sense of legality. So, the term "illegal immigrant" has the nonsensical meaning of illegal legal entry. Then when the illegal immigrant term didn't sound all that good anymore and was still associated with the illegal behavior, the 2nd generation term "undocumented immigrant" was devised. It got that nasty word "illegal" out of the phrase and does almost make the behavior sound legitimate. But, again it's not an accurate term because the issue is not the lack of documentation, but the act of being here illegally. It's like if someone tried to legitimize bank robbery by pointing out that robbers just don't have withdrawal slips; but the real issue isn't lack of a withdrawal slip, the real issue is not having an account at the bank with money in it. Then undocumented immigrant became undocumented worker because "undocumented immigrant" wasn't adequately concealing the illegal behavior and the word "worker" as opposed to "immigrant" further obscured the reality that an actual illegal act is being committed and referred to. So, I believe the answer is that the word "illegal" IS only being applied to an action or behavior and "illegal alien" is the most accurate and objective term that can be used to describe that behavior. As far as the 2nd question, I don't think it's the specific choice of words that's causing any increased harassment -- a rose by any other name smells the same.

Answer 5

Nope, anything living can have an autopsy proformed. It is used most on humans though.

Answer 6

No, you can autopsy an animal

Answer 7

No, because on "Dirty Jobs" they had someone on who performs whale autopsies.

Answer 8

and animals

Answer 9

no