Medicine, science, and the law
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This retrospective case note study describes the demographic, offence and diagnostic characteristics of 115 referrals made to a psychiatric service within HMP Perth between May 2003 and April 2004. Twenty per cent of referrals were diagnosed with a major mental illness with remand prisoners having a higher overall prevalence. Nearly 70% had previous contact with psychiatric services, a similar percentage had previous substance misuse. ⋯ Over two-thirds had a previous history of offending and nearly 60% had a previous custodial sentence, reflecting a high degree of recidivism. This study supports the high degree of psychiatric morbidity in the prison population shown in other studies. The role of a prison psychiatric service is discussed in the context of services to mentally disordered offenders.
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The purpose of this paper is to present the legal aspects associated with assisted suicide in Switzerland and compare them with those in other countries. Like euthanasia, assisted suicide is a subject that induces much discussion in many countries. While the law is very liberal in some countries, such as Belgium and the Netherlands (where both euthanasia and assisted suicide take place), these practices are very controversial in other countries, such as France, where they remain taboo subjects. ⋯ In the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland the association Exit assists individuals living in Switzerland with serious progressive and incurable disease in their engagement to end their life. The association Dignitas, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, also undertakes--in the same circumstances--to assist individuals coming from foreign countries. Dignitas welcomes several such individuals every year, especially from Germany, where a similar approach does not currently exist.
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In France the status of the court expert has undergone a significant change with the adoption of statute no. 2004-130 of 11 February 2004 and its implementing regulations no. 2004-1463 of 23 December 2004. This article looks at the two most outstanding aspects of this change in status: (i) the conditions for registering on a court of appeal list and, (ii) the practical details of the quality control of the court expert's work as exercised by the judge. The article concludes with a brief comparison with the expert witness situation in England and Wales.