How exciting is the work of a forensic doctor? Besides corpses, what else do you study?

Expert of this article: Zhang Yinming, PhD in Forensic Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University

In recent years, TV dramas and movies about forensics have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. The recent variety show "Forensic Season for Newcomers" has raised the expectations of those who like suspense.

Contact with rotting corpses, floating corpses, and dismembered corpses, analyze knife wounds, gunshot wounds, and blow wounds, and unravel the truth...

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What does a real forensic doctor look like?

The "Advanced Forensic Medicine" (third edition) published in 2021 defines forensic medicine as: "Forensic medicine is a medical discipline that studies and solves legal issues such as personal injury, death, identity identification, etc., provides clues for criminal investigations, and provides evidence for trials." From this definition of forensic medicine, it can be seen that modern forensic medicine is "a medical science that emerged in response to the needs of the law and serves the law."

Song Ci is the father of forensic medicine in the world. Friends who have watched the TV series "The Great Song Dynasty Judge" have a certain understanding of the daily work of forensic doctors in Song Ci's era. How exciting is the work of modern forensic doctors?

One of the subjects of forensic research: corpses

The corpse is a classic forensic research object, and this is the area that the friends are most curious about.

Forensic pathology is a discipline that studies human injuries, deaths, and their development patterns. Its main research contents include the mechanisms, processes, and phenomena of injuries and deaths, such as various deaths that did not occur in hospitals or deaths that occurred in hospitals but are controversial.

The various so-called horror terms or pictures that our friends use to scare others or be scared by others, such as rigor mortis, cold corpse, gigantism, posthumous childbirth, horoscope, drowning gloves, abnormal undressing phenomenon, etc., are within the scope of forensic pathology.

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If a death is related to the mechanism of action of a certain poison, then this poison and the death it causes are the research objects of forensic toxicology, such as paraquat, methamphetamine (MSD, also known as ice), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which have been constantly on the screen in recent years, as well as cyanide, carbon monoxide, nitrite, etc. that cause livor mortis of different colors.

We often see some strange and bizarre phenomena on TV, but some of them have scientific explanations. For example:

● The body remains standing: due to rigor mortis, the joints are fixed and cannot be bent;

● The time of death can be determined based on the corpse: the time of death can be inferred based on how the body temperature, fading of livor mortis, etc. change over time after death; the degree of digestion of food in the stomach can also reflect the time from the last meal to death.

The second object of forensic research: living bodies

The research objects of forensic medicine include not only corpses, but also living people! This is also the biggest misunderstanding about forensic medicine.

Forensic clinicians focus on legally relevant injuries, disabilities, and other pathological or pathophysiological conditions of the human body. In daily life, forensic clinicians are responsible for assessing the various costs shown in the figure below.

When legally relevant injuries are mental, they fall within the scope of forensic psychiatry.

In addition, forensic psychiatrists also pay attention to issues such as the mental state and behavioral ability of the relevant persons when the crime occurs. The ultimate goal is to ensure fairness and justice in judicial practice.

The third object of forensic research:

Dead or living body part

At the crime scene, parts of corpses or living bodies are often more common, such as fallen hair, bloodstains on the wall, saliva stains on cigarette butts, cut nails, and stains on underwear. These biological evidences from corpses or living bodies often play a decisive role in solving cases or resolving disputes, and belong to the research content of forensic evidence (forensic genetics or forensic biology).

Forensic scientists are mainly curious about two issues: first, whose hair is it (individual identification); second, whose child is it (paternity testing).

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Forensic toxicology focuses on whether a certain poison is present in the stomach contents of the deceased in cases of suspected poisoning, and how much of the poison is present.

Forensic anthropology and forensic dentistry focus on bones and teeth because bones and teeth also tell forensic scientists where a person came from.

Other subjects of forensic research

From Song Ci's time to today, the research objects of forensic medicine have been increasing, such as -

Forensic on-site science studies the scene of crimes, natural disasters, accidents, etc. that cause casualties, such as the inspection and investigation of air crashes and terrorist incidents;

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Forensic entomology and forensic microbiology use the changing patterns of insect and microbial species, distribution, growth, and succession to analyze the source of corpses and the time of death.

Forensic veterinary medicine, the following news directly explains the research field of forensic veterinary medicine. In addition to buffalo, it can also be a puppy or a kitten.

Source: Chutian Metropolis Daily

Forensic genealogy, based on the analysis of DNA fragments inherited from the same individual, can identify or exclude the relationship between two individuals who claim to be "one family hundreds of years ago". The successful detection of the "Golden State Killer" case in the United States in 2018 made this technology one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs in the world in 2018 by Science magazine.

https://vis.sciencemag.org/breakthrough2018/

As science and technology continue to advance, I believe the field of forensic research will continue to expand.

The value of forensic medicine to most people lies in that, by continuously expanding the research field in life, it provides more opportunities for us, a society where "we don't know life, how can we know death", to think about death. The more we think about death, the more we think about life.

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