Though it is an unpleasant thought for an average person to consider, but an autopsy is an essential part of the investigative process. An autopsy is defined as an examination of a body after death to determine the cause of death or the character and extent of changes produced by disease (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It is often used as means to gather evidence, access trauma to bodies, and or diagnose diseases or pathology to a deceased person. It is often used in conjunction with police investigation in the quest for justice in the court system. This, sometimes, involves cutting into the body to retrieve evidence or determine the cause of death. Many times, this isn’t a feasible option, either for religious reasons or family wishes. However, the how and why of the death still has to be ascertained. A valuable tool that many death investigators use is radiographs. It is non-invasive, and allows the examiner to have a preliminary place to start. A new innovation in this mode of inquiry is called a Virtual Autopsy or “Virtopsy”.
It was developed by Richard Dirnhofer, the former head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bern, Switzerland. He was combing over a case that involved the injuries to the skull of a murder victim. His subsequent developments steered the way for a Swiss team, led by Professor Michael Thali of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Zurich, to begin using x-ray imaging to create scalpel-free 3D images of intact cadavers (Honigsbaum).
Some of the equipment that comprises the system of vitropsy are on the cutting edge of technology. This includes a robot-guided surface scanning for 3D records of the surface of the body in terms of scale and color. This is in addition to the visual examination done by...
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Grabherr, Silke. "Postmortem angiography after vascular perfusion with diesel oil and a lipophilic contrast agent." American Journal of Roengenology (2006): 515-523. Article.
Honigsbaum, Mark. "Virtual autopsy: does it spell the end of the scalpel?" 23 February 2013. The Guardian . 18 May 2014.
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Spencer, Will. Tech-faq.com/virtual_autopsy.html. 14 December 2012. Document. 18 May 2014.
Thali, MJ. "Virtopsy, a new imaging horizon in forensic pathology: virtual autopsy by postmortem multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)--a feasibility study." Journal of Forensic Sciences (2003): 386-403. Article.
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Introduction: Mary Roach introduces herself ass a person who has her own perspective of death about cadavers. She explains the benefits of cadavers and why they could be used for scientific improvements. She acknowledges the negative perspectives of this ideology.
In the book “Death's Acre”, By Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson they tell readers how they got to where they are today in their careers and how Dr. Bill Bass became famous for the well known “Body Farm” at the University of Tennessee. In “Deaths Acre” Bass invites people across the world who are reading to go behind the gates of the body farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. Bass takes us on a journey on how he went from not knowing if this is what he wanted to do for a living to being in a career that he would never trade. He tells us about the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explored the headless corpse of a person whose identity shocked many people included the police, divulges how the telltale traces and case
The term autopsy also referred to as “Post-mortem examination”, “necropsy”, “obduction” and “ autopsia cadaverum” originates from the Latin language and denotes to “open, cut/dissect”. Another origin is from two Greek terms “aut” (self) and “opsie” (to see, to conduct a personal inspection) hence, autopsy refers to the opening/dissection of a cadaver to see for oneself, through observation, the cause of death or the nature of disease contrary to what has been reported by another party. Autopsy practice has been in existence since over 3000 years ago. It was however, not until the Renaissance in Europe that autopsy became standard practice (1,2). The link between clinical syndromes and postmortem findings is credited to the Dutch physician Herman Boerhaave (3).
When a person's body decomposes after death, it goes through a series of stages involving different chemical changes that cause it to change its appareance. Observing these changes can help forensic scientists determine the post-mortem interval (or time since death), which is very important when it comes to investigating unnatural deaths.
One scientist was able to tell what a person had done his or her entire life, be it sitting at a desk twenty-four seven or playing professional tennis. The way forensic anthropology is used in an investigation is when a body is found that is beyond recognition, whether it be burned or decomposed. These scientists will clean the bones after a forensic pathologist has looked at the body to see if there are any noticeable differences in the organs or tissues. Once that is done, they will do a facial reconstruction on the skull. Most of the time, this is done to get a positive identification on the body. Then, they will examine the entire skeletal remains, looking for nicks, broken bones, anything that could help identify how the victim was killed. All of these processes take a lot of time to complete, but once they are done, the rewards are worth
Crimelibrary.com, (2014). The Mystery of Howard Hughes — Psychological Autopsy helps us understand controversial deaths — Crime Library. [online] Available at: http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/psych_autopsy/4.html [Accessed 5 May. 2014].
Imagine yourself as a mortician, certified as an embalmer, retort operator, funeral director, and a funeral cosmetologist. You get a call late at night, there’s been a terrible accident and someone has died. You arrive at the hospital and are directed to a small room where the body of the deceased is being held. There’s blood all over the sheets as the doctor and coronary assistant zip up the body bag and inform you the body was badly mangled in a car accident, which is going to make reconstructing the deceased very difficult. Your assistant puts the body on the stretcher and loads it into the hearse while you talk to the wife of the deceased man. She tells you they plan to have a funeral so you give her your card and a reassuring word before leaving the hospital and driving back to the funeral home. Now your job begins, not only will you have to reconstruct this man’s disfigured body, but you must meet with the family, discuss funeral arrangements, and deal with the family’s emotional trauma that comes with losing a loved one. Although working in the funeral business can be emotionally draining, it’s a satisfying feeling to see mourning families able to say goodbye to their loved ones. Despite the fact that working so closely with the deceased can be chilling, Mortuary science can be a thrilling field to work in.
Instead, state governments should provide more funding and training for county coroner’s so they can do their jobs well with the proper facilities and equipment. Coroners are important elected officials and should not be replaced by appointed medical examiners who are not accountable to the public (“Coroners and Forensic Science”). Electing coroners with little medical experience and allowing them to perform autopsies with no real regulatory oversight is a deeply flawed and outdated method for conducting death investigations. As stated in the article, “autopsies should be performed only by licensed physicians, preferably those specializing in forensic pathology, and in offices run by certified medical examiners (“Coroners and Forensic Science”).” Furthermore, the U.S. should have a federal department that can impose a uniform set of standards for death investigation in every county, instead of the confusing hodgepodge of systems it has
When someone says forensic anthropology, many minds go directly to beautiful woman working alongside good-looking men while they work to solve a murder in a day’s time, thanks to the media craze with homicide. The recently popular television show Bones, put the field of anthropology in the spotlight. Though the show gives fairly accurate information, many viewers, myself included, have developed a great curiosity for how the work is done. In this paper, I will share with you the answers to many of the questions I have asked myself in my many hours of watching this popular show, including: the process of identifying race, age and sex of a victim, determining whether an injury was antemortem, perimortem or postmortem, and how one is able to interpret the injuries in the case of the death.
The precursor to modern forensic art has its start in Alphonse Bertillon’s anthropometry. “Mr. Alphonse Bertillon, (born April 23, 1853, Paris—died Feb. 13, 1914, Münsterlingen, Switz.), chief of criminal identification for the Paris police (from 1880) who developed an identification system known as anthropometry, or the Bertillon system, that came into wide use in France and other countries.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2013) His system of body measurements, while replaced later, paved the way for what we today call forensic art. Still in the 1800s forensic art was used for wanted posters, postmortem drawings (there is a famous one of Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim Catherine Eddowes) and courtroom sketching, such as one of Lizzie Borden. Forensic art progressed in the 1900s, early 1900s it was the use of an updated drawing from old photos, sadly it was a highly romanticized image that flattered the suspect, that helped lead to the arrest of Dr. Crippen who was found guilty of the murder of his wife. Then in the
Maio, V. D. (2003). Medicolegal death investigation system: workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Through this research I have found that forensics and forensics anthropology work hand in hand. They seem to be closely related in regards (regards is an emotion, you mean regard) to solving criminal cases. A huge interest for me, while conducting this research is the impact the analysis has on cold cases. Cold cases are very important and require an extensive analysis of one’s life whose life? Mine?. Often victims in a cold case do not have strong family bonds, or persons that they are close to. It is imperative within life to have friends and persons, who will say something if you are not seen in a couple of days or weeks. Knowing where a person may be or what a person is involved is important in the case of a missing person. It is a vital part of forensics in relation to forensic anthropology. Within forensics anthropology you can find out more detailed information on the decomposition process. Steadman (2014) The information (what information?) can be used to identify a victim and maybe lead to clues of the perpetrator. New paragraph The study of a victim may also l...
A crime scene investigator is the individual who arrives at a crime scene and not only searches and preserves evidence located on the crime scene, but also sends off evidence that may assist in determining the identity of victims and murders to the appropriate personnel. This individual implements several of methods in order to gather the appropriate evidence. Some of the ways that they gather the evidence is by lifting fingerprints, gathering blood, gathering saliva, gathering any hand written documents, taking photos of tattoos, gathering teeth, gathering hair and so much more. These individuals truly play a huge role in the discovery of the individual’s identity. Although crime scene investigators carry an important role in gathering data it is also important to look at what methods are used and how they can lead to the discovery of a deceased individual’s
All in all, though the use of a virtual examination is more widely accepted by a patient’s next of kin and can supply decent information as to a cause of death, nothing can replace the hands on approach that is educating our Doctors and interns. Instead, the use of digital imaging should be utilized as an invaluable asset to the postmortem examination process by aiding in the weak areas of a traditional examination. Perhaps, in time, the technology of these scans can be improved upon, but until then, traditional autopsies will remain the gold standard in
Before the discovery of X-rays in 1895, it was impossible to look inside human body, without causing harmful side effects. The famous quote of Anna Bertha Ludwig - “I have seen my death” is a testimony to this. In ancient times, the only way to study internal human organs was the dissection of dead bodies. Additionally, this was also subject to availability or religious beliefs. Leonardo da Vinci made 240 detailed sketches between 1510 and 1511, which were way ahead of their time. Unfortunately, it could not be published, except for a small amount in 1632. Images aide in visualization of illnesses (e.g. a malignant tumor), which are impossible to observe from outside of the body. A surgeon must know the various attributes of the tumor like location and size, before she can operate on it. Similarly an oncologist needs this information to decide the course of treatment e.g. tumor size and metabolic activity may be needed to determine the number of chemotherapy sessions. With images, all this information can be obtained without cutting open the patient. And what’s remarkable is that u...