Archiwum medycyny sa̧dowej i kryminologii
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
[Neurosis as a mental disease--controversies surrounding insurance certification].
In the years 2008-2009, experts from the Department of Forensic Medicine in Katowice issued a dozen of expert opinions on the nature of the neurosis, addressing the question whether neurosis is a mental disease as understood under the general insurance conditions or whether neurosis is a mental disease as such. All the submitted cases involved policemen who had been diagnosed as neurotic and were refused insurance payments since the insurance company claimed payments could not have been effected due to the diagnosis of mental disease, meaning neurosis in the discussed cases. The plaintiffs invoked the fact that medical terminology describes such states as "mental disorders". In the article, the authors present the adopted model of opinionating, make an attempt at explaining the controversy and discuss the subtleties of medical terminology and the core differences between the terms "mental disorder" and "mental disease" as employed in medico-legal opinionating in such cases.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
Review[Methods of carbon monoxide determination in postmortem blood--advantages and disadvantages].
With respect to epidemiology of carbon monoxide poisonings, the diagnostic management of poisonings caused by this xenobiotic is among the fundamental objectives of forensic toxicology. In forensic practice, to determine carbon monoxide, colorimetric and spectrophotometric methods, as well as gas chromatography are used. Based on literature data and their own experience, the authors discuss analytical methods universally applied in determinations of carbon monoxide in postmortem blood. The advantages and disadvantages, as well as the cause of errors resulting from the specificity of the examined material (postmortem blood) are indicated.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
[A report of an accident investigation commission as evidence in legal proceedings].
In practice it happens that both a report of an accident investigation commission and court expert's opinions are under consideration during a civil or criminal case. The authors present three groups of problems that are associated with such situations, attempting to provide answers to the problems. The above-mentioned problems may be presented in the following way: may the body of evidence (inside the range of a court case) incorporate expert opinions, which were prepared for an accident investigation commission (if so--may such opinions replace evidence derived from a court expert's opinion); is it legally admissible to use findings of an accident investigation commission as evidential purpose in crime proceedings (if so--what kind of evidence should such findings represent); how should lawyers decide in case of a contradiction between an expert opinion of an accident investigation commission and a court expert's opinion.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
[Assessment of exposure to hydrogen cyanide in fire fatalities in the aspects of endogenous hydrogen cyanide production as a result of putrefaction processes in the deceased].
On account of endogenous hydrogen cyanide (HCN) production in the deceased, it is not easy to assess exposure to HCN in people who died in fire involving closed rooms (flats, garages, cellars, etc). In the paper, the authors present the results of blood determinations of hydrogen cyanide in fatalities of explosions and fires occurring in coal-mines, as well as fires in closed rooms. It has been demonstrated that the time of exposure to a high temperature and the temperature itself hamper autolysis processes that lead to production of endogenous HCN in fire fatalities.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
[Significance of knowledge about typicality in medico-legal opinionating].
Theoretical assumptions of forensic medicine indicate the necessity of a deeper analysis of opinionating rules, both with reference to the time of the specialty synthesis and its implementation before the court. Misuse of knowledge about typicality creates an especially negative role in this process. Instead of natural science-based facts, common-sense, probabilistic forms appear in the opinions, decreasing the level of aspirations. The opinion loses its advisory character and assumes jurisdictive properties.