Forensic Medicine —a multidisciplinary medical subject dedicating to administration of justice
With the advances of the society, more and more complicated issues related with medicine are constantly emerged in the practice of law enforcement. Therefore, forensic medicine has been developed into a multi-disciplinary medical subject that closely deals with many aspects of medicine which interact with the law, and also forms its own subfields. Although there are considerable variations in the social and legal systems as well as diversity in ethics and religions from country to country in the world, the common goal of forensic medicine is dedicated to the administration of justice.
In this course, the basic principles and knowledge on the main subfields of forensic medicine are lectured, such as forensic pathology, forensic toxicology, and forensic biology. Lectures on important points regarding the main subfields will be given, including general aspects on forensic medicine, such as definition and historical development of forensic medicine in China, medico-legal system; death certification and varieties of changes or phenomena occurred after death; mechanical injuries by blunt or sharp instruments; gunshot wound; cerebro-cranial injuries; asphyxia and mechanical asphyxia; sudden unexpected death, especially sudden cardiac death; deaths from burns and electrocution; poisoning, especially deaths from carbon monoxide or alcohol poisoning; identification of bloodstains; source, collection and storage of biological samples; and forensic DNA analysis, and so on. Some aspects on the other subfields including forensic clinical medicine, forensic psychiatry, forensic toxicological analysis, forensic anthropology, and forensic entomology are briefly introduced. In the classes, a lot of pictures pertaining to medico-legal practice are displayed and some medico-legal caseworks presented for further understanding of the lectures. Additionally, many questions in connection with each lecture are provided for reviews after class.
As an academic subject and specialty, forensic medicine not only plays an important role in the practice of law enforcement, but also covers a wide spectrum of professional interests. The medico-legal investigations provide scientific and physical evidence for criminal case investigations in the legal procedure. In addition, by providing medico-legal evidence forensic medicine assists to the civil litigations such as in alleged medical malpractice due to patient death during hospitalization, personal injuries in varieties of incidents, parental relationship and life insurance claims. In addition, doctors might be asked by the court as an expert witness or a witness to give their opinions on death related issues or evaluations on the injuries. So, learning principles and knowledge on forensic medicine is not only a professional education for the medico-legal practitioners, but also a professional requirement for the medical students.
