Medicine, science, and the law
-
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.
-
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.
-
Homicidal burning of married women in India is a major concern for the Government, law-enforcing authorities, the judiciary, the police and medico-legal experts all over the country who are associated with dowry disputes. Dowry death, a heinous crime, is gradually engulfing and polluting the entire society. Sections 304(B) and 498(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have been introduced and Sections 174 Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) and 176 Cr PC have been modified but, instead of deterring dowry deaths, the occurrences are increasing day by day and the number of cases coming for post-mortem examination is rising. ⋯ Most victims died at the time of the incident, or within the subsequent 24 hours, due to hypovolumeic shock. The education status in 70.21% cases was either illiterate or under matriculation. More stringent laws and female independence both mentally and economically will reduce the homicidal burns in young brides.
-
Anatomic trauma scoring systems are fundamental to trauma research. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and its derivative, the Injury Severity Score (ISS), are the most frequently used scales. ⋯ Fifty-eight cases (14.5%) were assigned an ISS value of <25; 244 (61%) cases were valued between 25-49; 38 cases (9.5%) were valued between 50-74 and 60 (15%) cases had a value of 75. On analysis of medical care, in cases with ISS<50, about 96% of the victims did not receive optimal care quickly enough with a lack of pre-hospital resuscitation measures and lengthy transportation time to hospital being of major importance.
-
The burn wound healing process, which is reviewed in this paper, has features that differ from the healing of incised cutaneous wounds. This study used immunohistochemical staining and cell counting to examine the inflammatory cell response in biopsy samples of burn wounds from live human subjects obtained at six hours until 23 days after injury in order to determine how the age of a burn could be estimated. Acute inflammatory cells predominated in samples taken six hours to two days after injury. However, neutrophils were often minimal in early samples or could be present late. Elevated numbers of macrophages tended to be encountered from days 2 to 20, but it was not uncommon to observe a minimal or absent macrophage response. Unexpectedly, there was no trend in the number of lymphocytes. A small study was also made of burn wound samples that had been obtained at post-mortem examination of subjects that died in a fire or up to 77 days after injury from fire. This revealed a similar trend of neutrophil and macrophage accumulation. Additionally, it appeared that an increase in the number of lymphocytes occurred late, from 35 days. ⋯ If neutrophils predominate, the wound is probably less than a couple of days old. When macrophages are abundant the wound is probably a few days to weeks old. However, as expected from the review of the literature, the inflammatory cell infiltrate may be low or absent in burn wounds, which can render determination of the age of burn wounds difficult.