A Summary Of Death In Forensic Pathology

The coroner is responsible for identifying the victim as well as determining the cause and manner of death.

The interpretivist approach directly contrasts the positivist one and seeks to focus on the meanings of suicide for those involved. Douglas criticises Durkheim's use of official statistics as they are not accurate and recommends qualitative studies to discover the real rate of suicide. The statistics are a result of a coroners label and thus it is not trustworthy in his view. This suggested that cases are decided on "the basis of probability”. Douglas further seeks to find out the meaning of the suicide

Have you ever wanted to investigate a murder scene. Well, I am talking about a murder or a suicide story. It is unsure which because of what evidence they were left with. The victom is Meriwether Lewis, Meriwether Lewis is a expeditoiner who was found dead while on the expedition to discover the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. For three years he travelled with his friend, William Clark, in a company of 31 men, one woman and a child. He was 32 years old when the expedition returned to the United States. Meriwether Lewis bacame a national hero. For the next three yars he would be the Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Persanally, I think it was murder and I will tell you why later. More about the tragic afternoon of October 10, 1809, he reined in his horse of the Natchez Trace to spend the night at an inn called Grinder's Stand. It was a pleasant fall day some 70 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. The next morning, Meriwether Lewis was found dead. Now that you know some of the back ground, you can decide for youself if it was murder or suicide.

This method may have been sufficient in the 10th century when people were illiterate and believed the world was flat; however, the scientific world since then has grown exponentially. Science is a powerful study, aiding us in understanding the complex process life and the absence of life, death. Pathology, the science of disease, has assisted in the arrests of countless criminals, uncovering the truth and more notably providing a sense of closure for the loved ones of the deceased. A coroner system without the foundation of science is a system that keeps murders on the streets, the innocent behinds bars and prosecutors frozen in cases. The most memorable example of inefficiency is Dr. Paul McGarry, who made careless errors in not just one but four autopsies. In the case of new prison inmate Cayne Miceli, McGarry initially determined the cause of death to be a drug overdose. Upon the further examination, a second examiner found a heap of mucus in her lungs indicating she had severe asthma. The doctor then concluded the real cause of death was the jail restraints on her chest blocked her airways during an asthma attack (Thompson, 2011, para 13-16). A peculiar fact about the case was the McGarry concluded the cause of death before he got the test results. Could he had been trying to hide something? After all, he is an elected official which according to the NAS

People commit suicide on a daily basis, not only in the United States of America, but all over the entire world. Dying by suicide or losing someone from suicide can be incredibly traumatic for families, loved ones, and the victim. Also, dying from suicide by hanging, shooting, or harming oneself is not the utmost, moral, or ethical way to die, due to the physical pain. Furthermore, there are a

This is an attempt to unravel the tangle by an objective and empirical examination of information from crime scene and post mortem examination of the victims. Pre-digested information such as speculative newspaper reports, and statements from witnesses other than those called in a professional capacity have been avoided since theirs is largely subjective testimony that confounds more than it informs.

4. Scenario: You are investigating a homicide involving a victim found dead in his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the head.  You discover a suicide note.  What key steps would you take to determine this death was truly a suicide and not a murder?

The main theme of “Final Cut” by Atul Gawande is that medicine is an inexact science and doctors are not always sure of themselves, even if they appear confident. Gawande’s main argument is simply stated: there has been a decline in the amount of autopsies performed in the medical field as a result of medical arrogance; over confident doctors believe they know the cause of death and do not want to perform autopsies. Gawande illustrates his argument by outlining the history of autopsy use in medicine, incorporating medical cases that he has experienced as a surgeon, and including statistics on autopsy usage. “Final Cut” is an outstanding profile on the decline of autopsy use in medicine. What makes “Final Cut” an enjoyable and informative article for all readers is its use of strategies associated with fiction such as the establishment of characters, balance between medical information and personal experience, and its use of active voice.

"Suicide-by-cop" or "Police Assisted Suicide" are terms that have been the topic of conversation a little more than warranted these days. It seems that "suicide-by-cop" has been an ever growing phenomenon. The term "suicide-by-cop" is used to describe a suicidal person who consciously provokes police and engages in life-threatening behavior that will invoke or force a police officer to react with deadly force. This type of suicidal person relies on the decision of the police whether or not they live or die. The suicidal person may want to die or even have the intention to kill themselves, but cannot seem to bring themselves to take their own life. Some are afraid of the pain and others are just plain confused. So, they use the police as

In this paper, I will discuss the background of forensic pathology, the pros and cons of forensic pathology, and the similar and different in a forensic pathologist and a coroner. There are various disciplines in Forensic Science that can help with a crime, and solving that crime. One of these various disciplines is Forensic Pathology which the study of disease, and its causes, moreover; it involves the discovering the cause of the death where a death is sudden or suspicion to law enforcement. While a Forensic Pathologist can be helpful to law enforcement, and helpful in assisting in crime investigation, there are cons to being forensic pathologist. Furthermore, forensic pathologist can be confused with coroner even though they do the same

This truth forms an essential link between the enforcement of law and protection of the public in the administration of justice.” Forensic pathology is clearly a crucial role in the justice system. You have to be a little weird and crazy to have a passion for the kind of work that the coroners and M.E. go through on an everyday basis. They use past knowledge to make decisions on how death occurred and they come across many different postmortem changes in dead bodies. Every field is important in forensics, but pathology advocates for truth and justice to dead

 Thesis: While Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, I believe That Suicide is wrong.

Previous cases governed under common law indicate there is a consistent approach with the current legal regulation, when prosecuting assisted suicide; the factors support the previous decisions of R v Adams , R v Cox and R v Moor , which both involved decisions motivated by compassion and intent. The current law is that a doctor’s intention must not be to end life but to alleviate the patient’s suffering. It is strictly prohibited for a doctor or nurse to assist or encourage suicide and the policy now suggests prosecution is more likely if the suspect was acting in the medical profession, and the victim was in their care

The book gives a general overview of the field of forensic science. The sections of the book include “The Scene of the Crime; Working the Scene--The Evidence; Working the Scene of the Body Human;

The more a question is argued the better that question becomes it is often said. That question begins to grow and the side effect of this is the more people it reaches. Whether that question can be put into a category of right or wrong it begs to be answered. Knowledge is something that people instinctively need to function when faced with a problem, an answer must be found or it begins to form eminent possibility in any direction. The problem is a question that no one can truly answer for anyone other than the person faced with it, which is one's own self. The arguments from either side of this philosophical problem must not be centered around one's own belief but all that share the dilemma, which is in fact every human being.