Behind the scenes of the 'modern post-mortem'

What happens to us after we die?

It is impossible to say for certain. But for some individuals, if their cause of death is sudden, violent or unknown, an examination of their body - known as a "post-mortem" or "autopsy" - will be carried out.

These investigations - though uncomfortable subject matter for some - tell scientists more about life, through death.

5 live decided to go behind the scenes at a pathology lab to find out more about the process, and why it is changing.

A post-mortem is the examination of a body after death, which aims to determine the cause of death. They are carried out by pathologists: doctors who specialise in understanding the nature and causes of disease.

There are two types of post-mortem, hospital and coroner:

According to the NHS website, hospital post-mortems (not coroner) can only be carried out with consent - either from the person before they died, or a person close to the deceased.

Some people choose to give consent so their bodies can be used in research, like stage four breast cancer patient Jan King.

She said she was a "lifelong believer" in organ donation and was "hurt" when she found out her "body was no good to anybody" due to her cancer.

Jan explained why she was joining the Royal Marsden's Legacy study, which allows patients with secondary breast cancer to donate their tissues for research just hours after they pass away.

It might seem like grim work for some, but working with dead bodies is pathologist Dr Alison Cluroe's 9 to 5.

She explained why carrying out autopsies had "never been an issue" for her.

A report published earlier this year found that hospital autopsies are in decline.

The report states a number of factors to be responsible, but one big reason could be due to the development of post-mortem scanners, which allow pathologists to look inside bodies without cutting them open.

The technique has been welcomed by certain faith groups, who stress non-violation of the body and quick burial.

Claire Walker, who operates one such scanner by private company iGene in Sheffield, said it helped families "avoid an invasive post-mortem" and allowed her to scan a body in "under three minutes".

So what actually happens during a post-mortem examination? In this podcast, you'll hear an examination of a man in his 70's played out in real-time. It was recorded for us last year, and we have consent from the family to broadcast it.

Warning: We have taken care to make sure the audio is not too graphic, but because of its nature some people might find the following podcast upsetting.