EXAMINATION, PHYSICAL. In legal pro ceedings, the medical or surgical examination of a living person by judicial order or as a !sift of legal proceedings to determine the existence or the nature of a physical injury alleged to exist, or of a physiological condition upon which the rights of a party to the proceeding may depend. It is especially available in actions for personal injury due to willful violence or to negligence, and in cases of abortion, malpractice, and rape. IN'hether a court of justice has the power to compel a party to an action to submit to a phys ical examination is a quest ion upon which judi cial decisions are at variance. It hes been answered in the negative by the United States Supreme Court and by courts of last resort in several of the States, while an affirmative an swer has liven given by maoy State tribunals. The power has been denied on the ground that the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person is held sacred and carefully guarded by the coin MOH law. That
right, it is said. is as much invaded by a com pulsory stripping and exposure as by a blow.
Other courts have affirmed the existence of this power. on the ground that the cud of litiga tion is justice, and that whenever the physical examination of a party litigant is necessary to the ascertainment of the truth aml the award of justice, such examination may be ordered. The latter view has received statutory sanction in some of our States. (See ch. 721, N. Y. Laws, 1893.) Even where this view prevails, the exer cise of the power is a matter of judicial discre tion. A party has not the absolute right to com pel his opponent to submit to a physical ex amination; and a court will order such exami nation only when the necessities of the case require it, and when it can be made without danger to the party's life or health, and without the infliction of serious pain. Watson, On Damages for Personal Injuries (Charlottes ville, 1901).