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Forensic medecine
What is forensic medicine?
Forensic medicine is the specialty that is concerned with determining the cause or causes of injury to a victim, and in particular the causes of suspicious death.
The discipline’s fields of action are multiple:
- observation and study of criminal or tortious facts;
- assessment of the damage caused to an individual by accidental or criminal violence;
- drafting of detailed reports established for a magistrate (France) or for the coroner (Quebec).
There are several branches of forensic medicine (3), and in particular:
- forensic pathology;
- anthropology and forensic radiology;
- criminology and forensic psychiatry;
- medical and ethical law;
- forensic entomology;
- medicine in prisons;
- clinical forensic pathology;
- social medicine;
- forensic dentistry;
- compensation for bodily injury;
- the thanatology;
- forensic toxicology.
In Quebec, forensic medicine is practiced by a physician specializing in forensic pathology (a subspecialty of anatomo-pathology). This intervenes at the request of the coroners.
Note that the coroner (4) is a doctor, lawyer or notary. It intervenes when a death has occurred in violent, obscure circumstances or as a result of negligence. He is responsible for determining the identity of the deceased and the circumstances of the death. He can thus proceed or order that an autopsy of a body, an examination or an expertise be carried out.
When does the forensic pathologist intervene?
The forensic doctor intervenes at the request of the courts. Its role is to make forensic findings in order to understand the circumstances that led to the injury or death.
Classically, he intervenes to make dead bodies speak, during an autopsy:
- he performs a clinical examination of the victim (assessment of skin lesions, examination of organs);
- he may have to search for toxic substances, perform biological analyzes, or even use medical imaging techniques.
The forensic pathologist also works with the living:
- to analyze situations of violence (in the legal care of victims). In this case, they have to collaborate with many other specialists (gynecologists, pediatricians, emergency physicians, etc.);
- to assess the after-effects of accidents, assaults, etc.
How to become a forensic pathologist?
Training as a forensic pathologist in France
To become a forensic pathologist, the student must obtain a diploma of complementary specialized studies (DESC) in forensic medicine and medical expertise (DESC type I, for a period of 2 years). Before that, the student must hold a diploma of specialized studies (DES), namely the diploma obtained at the end of the internship:
- after having completed 6 years at the Faculty of Medicine;
- and after having passed the national classifying tests, which allow access to the boarding school.
Finally, to be able to practice as a pediatrician and hold the title of doctor, the student must also defend a research thesis.
Note that with a DESC type I, the young doctor retains his title of specialist in the specialty of his DES.
Forensic pathology training hasu Quebec
After college studies, the student must:
- follow a doctorate in medicine, lasting 1 or 4 years (with or without a preparatory year for medicine for students admitted with a college or university training deemed insufficient in basic biological sciences);
- specialize by following a residency in anatomo-pathology for 5 years, and one year in forensic pathology (5).
Who can seek the advice of a forensic pathologist?
The forensic doctor only exercises at the request of a judicial authority, such as an examining magistrate, a magistrate or the police court.