新冠肺炎疫情期间公安法医应当加强尸体甄别和个体防护

因鉴定体制特点,公安法医除参与尸体有关的现场勘查工作外,还需进行尸体检验工作。在此过程中,可能面对很多风险,受伤和中毒等事件时有发生。然而,国内公安法医对新冠肺炎等传染病流行期间死亡的尸体如何甄别进行尸体检验鉴定,对现场勘查及尸体检验工作的防护只有少量规定,且内容不够详尽。本文对法医在现场勘查中遇到的尸体及尸体检验中实验室建设、职业现状、风险评估及防范措施等进行了论述。最后,建议出台相关的制度规定等具体约束规范措施,以保障公安法医现场勘查及尸体检验工作的顺利进行,以解除基层鉴定机构和鉴定人的后顾之忧。     

法医学人体损伤程度鉴定的现状分析

法医学人体损伤程度鉴定是法医工作的重要组成部分,为大量案件的侦破、起诉、公正审判提供重要证据.随着社会的不断发展进步,目前法医损伤程度鉴定存在诸多问题,这些问题在一定程度上影响了法医鉴定的客观性、公正性、科学性、合理性,阻碍了法医技术的发展.结合自己的实际工作经验,从以下几个方面阐述对损伤程度鉴定现状的几点认识.     

法医临床鉴定细节问题的探讨

随着社会的发展以及人们的观念越来越先进化,法医这个职业也慢慢的受到了人们的普遍关注。但是,也存在一些人对法医的工作不了解,对法医临床鉴定细节问题的重要性不够重视。法医的临床鉴定在处理法律案件、医学以及其他方面显示出了独特的作用。本文将从四大方面解读法医临床鉴定细节问题,解开法医工作者的神秘面纱,让法医临床鉴定这个学科,这个职业更加的大众化,让人们对法医临床鉴定细节问题有个深刻的认识。     

法医病理学鉴定对处理医疗纠纷的作用

新的《医疗事故处理条例》明确了法医工作者可参与医疗事故鉴定,这对广大的法医特别是法医病理学工作者既是机遇也是挑战。本文从客观的死因鉴定、法医病理学参与尸检的优势和医疗纠纷的鉴定工作三方面详细阐述了法医病理学鉴定对处理医疗纠纷的重要作用,同时也对法医病理学工作者如何做好鉴定工作提出了自己的见解。     

探析法医在交通事故鉴定中的重要性

当权利遭受侵害时,有效的保护受害人的权利以及如何保护是现在法治社会普遍存在的问题。尤其是交通事故发生时,现场的勘验、事故的处理、法医的鉴定、伤者的救治、事后的理赔则显的尤为重要。在这一系列事件处理的过程中,法医的鉴定则起着承前启后的作用,正确的法医鉴定能充分保护双方当事人的权利。     

犯罪现场勘验中法医的职业安全

因鉴定体制特点,国内法医除鉴定工作外,还需进行犯罪现场勘验工作。在此过程中,可能面对很多风险,受伤和中毒等事件时有发生。然而,国内对现场勘验工作的防护只有少量规定,且内容不够详尽。本文对法医在现场勘验中的职业健康现状进行了分析,并将危害因素分为人、物、环境和管理四类进行论述。最后,从组织和技术两方面提出了具体防范措施。     

儿童性虐待的法医学鉴定

本文综述了国内外相关文献资料,从流行病学及法医学检验方面较为系统地对儿童性虐待案件进行论述,以期能开拓国内法医工作者对此类案件的检验鉴定思路并提高鉴定能力。本文还简要介绍了目前我国基层办案单位对于儿童性虐待案件处理的现状及存在的问题,希望对我国有关儿童保护的相关标准及规范的制定、完善与发展能有所帮助。     

听力损害法医临床学鉴定难点分析及对策

医学科学的发展,为法医临床学的发展打下了良好的基础.X线、CT、MRI、ABR以及其它新的临床诊断技术,为法医临床学鉴定提供了客观依据,促进了法医临床学的不断发展.本文仅从听力损害法医学鉴定角度谈一谈其鉴定的难点及对策,希望能给法医同仁提供一定的参考.     

法医临床鉴定中存在问题的探讨

法医临床鉴定,俗称法医伤情鉴定,是指运用法医学和临床学专业知识对人体的损伤程度、伤残等级及其他与临床医学及法律有关的各种损伤进行鉴定和评定,并提供鉴定意见的活动.但由于我国司法鉴定实践起步较晚,加上法律条文的滞后以及各种利益的掣肘,我国现行的司法鉴定制度存在诸多弊端,司法鉴定工作也十分混乱,出现了或多或少的问题.本文旨对法医临床鉴定中存存的问题进行分析并就如何提高鉴定质量谈谈个人意见.     

心肌致密化不全及其法医学鉴定

心肌致密化不全(noncompaction of ventricular myocardium,NVM)是一种罕见的特殊类型的心肌病.近年来对于NVM的临床报道和研究越来越多,已成为临床心血管方面研究的热点问题之一.虽然NVM较为罕见,但因其猝死发生较多,加上目前我国大多数法医工作者对此认识不足,同时,现阶段还没有非常成熟的法医病理学检查方法,且其易与其他类型心脏疾病相混淆,因此对NVM的法医病理学鉴定需要充分的认识和格外谨慎.现重点对NVM的病理学特点、常用的临床诊断方法及与其他类型心脏疾病的鉴别诊断进行综述,并总结其法医学鉴定要点.     

HIV-infection in forensic autopsy cases

Sudden and unexpected death and violent death of persons with a high risk of acquiring HIV-infections, especially homosexual males and intravenous drug abusers, have to be investigated by forensic autopsies. Therefore every forensic pathologist has to be aware of this infection and should try to make the proper diagnosis. Three typical cases are described: (1) suicide by hanging, (2) homicide by cutting the throat and (3) intravenous heroin overdose. Merely retrospectively it could be cleared up that the deceased were homosexual but did not manifestly suffer from AIDS. The morphological findings in the lymph nodes and the postmortem serological findings are described in detail.     

Sexual Entitlement: Rights and AIDS,The Early Years*

While traditionally social scientists saw politics as an independent force acting on law, today it seems appropriate to also view law as an agent in the construction of political identities, aspirations and tactics. Here, the AIDS epidemic illuminates this relationship. Soon after AIDS was identified, the cities of San Francisco and San Diego moved to close the gay baths as breeding grounds for the disease. The struggle over that policy reveals how law enters into the debates within the homosexual community, and at least partially constitutes individual identity in that community.     

The AIDS epidemic and gay bathhouses: a constitutional analysis

Some legal scholars propose that the right of privacy articulated by the United States Supreme Court should be extended to protect homosexual activity. In light of the advent of AIDS, should that extension include constitutional protection for homosexual men who frequent gay bathhouses? The author argues that although the government has the power to close the baths in the name of public health, it should not do so without careful and conscious balancing against the privacy rights infringed upon by its actions. Balancing the tension between public health policy and individual rights applies not only to the specific situation of the baths, but also to insurance companies' aim to test all single, young, male life and health policy applicants for exposure to the putative AIDS virus; to potential health department releases of names of those testing antibody-positive for HTLV-III; to the military's rumored plans to discharge all personnel suspected of having AIDS; and to school districts seeking to exclude children with AIDS.     

AIDS and murder

This study examined whether mental health professionals would differentiate, in terms of confidentiality and a duty to protect, persons with AIDS (PWAs) who refused to inform their partners from persons with homicidal intent. Six hundred professionals were randomly assigned one of four hypothetical therapy vignettes. In each vignette, the client had either AIDS or homicidal intent. The relationship of the client to the third party was either heterosexual or homosexual. PWAs were rated as being significantly more dangerous than persons with homicidal intent. Persons with homicidal intent were significantly more likely to receive increased intervention and their partners were significantly more likely to be warned. PWAs were rated significantly more negatively on most adjective rating scales.This research was completed while the first author was a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia. This study does not reflect, in any way, the opinions or endorsement of the Alaska Area Native Health service, the Indian Health Service, or DHHS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Steve Nock, Joe Allen, Eric Turkheimer, Cathy Crosby, Michael Arthur, and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic in this endeavor.     

MAKING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL: A LAW AND ECONOMICS DEFENSE OF SAME‐SEX FOSTER CARE ADOPTIONS

This article explores the methods by which homosexual partners can adopt children from foster care, primarily via the stepparent adoption method because most jurisdictions do not recognize same‐sex marriage or civil unions. In establishing that the children in foster care constitute a market not in equilibrium, I explore the significant barriers to entry that homosexual partners must overcome in order to adopt a child, including the biased rules of intestate succession, the inability of homosexuals to secure health insurance or other governmental subsidies for their nonbiological, adopted children, and the apparent misconception that homosexual parenting negatively affects the well‐being of the child. By deconstructing the barriers to entry in the foster care market for children, children will be afforded the opportunity to maximize their utility through permanency, and homosexual parents and the general public can maximize their utility through the reallocation of assets away from the foster care market, given that more children are likely to be adopted once homosexuals are granted unfettered adoption rights. The reallocation of assets away from the foster care market increases social efficiency, which is desired by all.     

Nova Scotia renews its HIV/AIDS strategy

On 1 December 2003, after a five-year process of consultation and planning, Nova Scotia embarked on a new HIV/AIDS strategy. It replaces the first strategy, launched a decade earlier. The renewed strategy is meant to promote collaborative action on the determinants of vulnerability to HIV infection and on the capacity of people living with HIV/AIDS to achieve optimal health and quality of life.     

Reproducibility of Artificial Cut on Heel Area of Rubber Outsole

Randomly acquired characteristics (RAC) are seldom used for exclusion in footwear examinations because they can disappear owing to wear. To help examiners explain discrepancies in RAC, this study investigated the reproducibility of cuts. One cut was made on the heel area of each shoe outsole and then measured. Changes in cuts were statistically evaluated, correlations between their variations and the weight/height of the subject were assessed, and the Support Vector Machine was used for the first time to study their discrimination probability. Most cuts became larger at first and then became smaller. The solidities of most cuts increased after 21 days, and the variation in the cut and the subject's weight/height were negatively correlated. Although the discrimination probability declined as the cut aged, 77% of the same-source and 96.88% of the different-source cuts could be identified correctly after 6 months, indicating that cuts on the heel area are relatively reliable.     

A Comparison of Thresholding Methods for Forensic Reconstruction Studies Using Fluorescent Powder Proxies for Trace Materials

Image segmentation is a fundamental precursor to quantitative image analysis. At present, no standardised methodology exists for segmenting images of fluorescent proxies for trace evidence. Experiments evaluated (i) whether manual segmentation is reproducible within and between examiners (with three participants repeatedly tracing three images) (ii) whether manually defining a threshold level offers accurate and reproducible results (with 20 examiners segmenting 10 images), and (iii) whether a global thresholding algorithm might perform with similar accuracy, while offering improved reproducibility and efficiency (16 algorithms tested). Statistically significant differences were seen between examiners’ traced outputs. Manually thresholding produced good accuracy on average (within ±1% of the expected values), but poor reproducibility (with multiple outliers). Three algorithms (Yen, MaxEntropy, and RenyiEntropy) offered similar accuracy, with improved reproducibility and efficiency. Together, these findings suggest that appropriate algorithms could perform thresholding tasks as part of a robust workflow for reconstruction studies employing fluorescent proxies for trace evidence.     

“Who Is a Homosexual?”: The Consolidation of Sexual Identities in Mid‐Twentieth‐Century American Immigration Law

This essay uses court records to trace the federal government's attempts to regulate homosexuality among immigrants in the mid-twentieth century, asserting that such attempts illustrate the state's struggle to make homosexuality visible, to produce a homosexuality that could be both detected and managed. I focus on the process by which two competing paradigms for understanding homosexuality (status and conduct) were consolidated into a single model in which homosexual identity could be deduced from homosexual acts. Federal officials and the courts initially treated homosexuality as a form of conduct, most commonly deporting homosexual aliens for having committed crimes of moral turpitude. Later, these same government entities relied on status provisions, deporting immigrants charged with homosexuality as aliens "afflicted with psychopathic personality." While the "psychopathic personality" terminology supported the notion that the homosexual was a kind of person rather than a set of behaviors, it also depended upon psychiatrists to support the claim that homosexuals were by definition psychopathic. When many psychiatrists distanced themselves from that idea, the government refused psychiatric opinion that differentiated psychopaths from homosexuals by arguing that these terms connoted legal-political rather than medicalized identity categories. While this conception arose out of a conservative impulse by immigration officials and the courts to fix homosexuality as identity so that it could be regulated (by bureaucrats rather than psychiatrists), I argue that the emphasis on legal-political identity categories licensed a conception of the homosexual as a kind of citizen that had some emancipatory as well as repressive effects.     

Comparative Assessment of a Novel Photo‐Anthropometric Landmark‐Positioning Approach for the Analysis of Facial Structures on Two‐Dimensional Images

Positioning landmarks in facial photo‐anthropometry (FPA) applications remains today a highly variable procedure, as traditional cephalometric definitions are used as guidelines. Herein, a novel landmark‐positioning approach, specifically adapted for FPA applications, is introduced and, in particular, assessed against the conventional cephalometric definitions for the analysis of 16 landmarks on ten frontal images by two groups of examiners (with and without professional knowledge of anatomy). Results showed that positioning reproducibility was significantly better using the novel method. Indeed, in contrast to the classic approach, very low landmark dispersions were observed for both groups of examiners, which were usually below the strictest clinical standards (i.e., 0.575 mm). Furthermore, the comparison between the two groups of examiners highlighted higher dispersion consistencies, which supported a higher robustness. Thus, the use of an adapted landmark‐positioning approach proved to be highly advantageous in FPA analysis and future work in this field should consider adopting similar methodologies.