The word morgue is derived from the French "morgue", which means "to solemnly observe." At first, the morgue was a place located in the prisons, where the new prisoners were taken so that they could later be identified by the guards. Its current concept describes a space located in health centers, where corpses are stored so that they are recognized by their families.
Currently the morgue spaces are refrigerated to prevent the decomposition of the corpses. The morgue only offers the storage and preservation service of the corpses, no funeral services are offered. Both clinics and hospitals have a morgue, there they place patients who were admitted to them and who unfortunately have died. In addition to this, autopsies are also performed in the morgue, which are analyzes carried out by a forensic scientist to determine the cause of the person's death, of course, this type of analysis is only carried out in the event that the reason for the death is doubtful.
In this sense, it can be said that not all autopsies serve the same purpose, since there are some related to judicial procedures, such as murder, and others are of clinical interest.
As already mentioned, the morgue is an area that is prepared in terms of refrigeration, so that the corpses do not decompose and remain at an appropriate temperature, until they are released.
It is also important to mention that these places have established certain very strict hygiene criteria, in order to prevent infections and at the same time have a system for identifying the bodies.
