LESSON LEARNED:

FORENSIC PATHOLOGY

dr. Taufik Hidayat, M.Sc,Sp.F

DEPARTMENT OF FORENSIC MEDICINE AND
MEDICOLEGAL
FACULTY OF MEDICINE
UNIVERSITAS ANDALAS-2019
• Forensic pathology is a branch of
medicine that applies the principles and
knowledge of the medical sciences to
problems in the field of law

DIMAIO, DIMAIO, 2001

 DEATH
• Death is permanent cessation of all vital
bodily function
• For legal and medical purposes: death is
the irreversible cessation of all of the
following: total cerebral function,
spontaneous function of the respiratory
system and spontaneos function ot the
circulatory system
Dorland's med.dic.,1997
 The major duties of a medicolegal system in handling deaths falling
under its jurisdiction are:

• To determine the cause and manner of death

• To identify the deceased if unknown
• To determine the time of death and injury
• To collect evidence from the body that can be used to prove or disprove
an individual’s guilt or innocence and to confirm or deny the account of how the
death occurred.
• To document injuries or lack of them
• To deduce how the injuries occurred
• To document any natural disease present
• To determine or exclude other contributory or causative factors to the death
• To provide expert testimony if the case goes to trial
• There are two general types of medicolegal investigative
systems in the United States: coroner systems and
medical examiner systems.
• The coroner system, dating back to feudal England, is
the older of the two medicolegal systems. The earliest
reference appears in the Articles of Eyre (1194). In the
pure form of this system, an individual who is not a
physician is elected the coroner. He then makes rulings
as to the cause and manner of death in cases that fall
under the coroner law.
• The first true medical examiner system came into existence in 1918 in New
York City.
• A medicolegal system was established in which the individual designated as
Chief Medical Examiner was to be a physician experienced in the field of
pathology (forensic pathology did not become a subspecialty until 1959).
The system described the type of cases that fell under the Medical
Examiner Law; it stated that the medical examiner could perform autopsies
in cases that he felt needed them, and it established a laboratory for his
use. The cases that fell under the medical examiner system were violent
deaths (accidents, suicides, homicides), suspicious deaths, sudden,
unexpected deaths, and deaths occurring without the attendance of a
physician. Most medical examiner systems in this country are variations of
the original New York concept. Some of the newer systems specify that the
chief medical examiner must be a forensic pathologist.
• INDONESIA-->PENYIDIK
 Functions of the medical examiner’s or coroner’s
office are:

A. cause of death
•is any injury or disease that produces a
physiological derangement in the body that
results in the death of the individual.
•the following are causes of death: a
gunshot wound to the head, a stab wound to
the chest, adenocarcinoma of the lung, and
coronary atherosclerosis.
B. The mechanism of death
•is the physiological derangement produced
by the cause of death that results in death.
•Examples of mechanism of death would be
hemorrhage, septicemia, and cardiac
arrhythmia.
C. The manner of death
•explains how the cause of death came
about.
•Manners of death can generally be
categorized as natural, homicide,
suicide,accident, or undetermined.
 AUTOPSY
The words autopsy, necropsy and post-mortem
examination are synonymous, although postmortem
examination can have a broader meaning encompassing
any examination made after death,including a simple
external examination. In general terms, autopsies can be
performed for two reasons:clinical interest and medico-legal
purposes.
 The Minnesota protocol
• A model autopsy protocol has been produced by the United Nations within
the context of the investigation of human rights abuses – the Minnesota
Protocol (the United Nations Manual on the Effective Presentation and
Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions) – but which
can be used for dealing with ‘difficult or sensitive’ or controversial cases.
• The protocol, which covers all stages of the pathological death investigation
process, from scene examination to ancillary tests, recognizes the need for
such cases to be dealt with by objective, experienced, well-equipped and
well-trained patho logists, and much of the detail contained within the
protocol codifies the standards already followed by forensic pathologists
when performing suspicious death autopsies in many countries.