Observations of high velocity bloodspatter on adjacent objects

In a recent homicide investigation, high velocity backspatter was observed on the sleeve cuff of the accused. These minute droplets were discovered only after microscopic examination and were limited in number. A study was initiated to determine if these were truly backspatter droplets or transferred blood produced from light contact with a bloody item. It was observed that the backspattered blood was primarily limited to contact or near contact shots. An exception was a shot into an already bloody surface. It was found that backspattered blood would deposit on the shooter's shirt sleeve irrespective of the weave pattern. Transferred blood was observed only on the fiber tops. This information was found to be useful in reconstruction of events in suicides as well as possible homicides.     

Ethics and the Physician-Patient Relationship

Book Reviews in This Article:
Getting Rid of Patients: Contradictions in the Socialization of Physicians . By Terry Mizrahi
Physicians and Social Change . By John Colombotos and Corinne Kirchner
Changing Values in Medicine . Edited by Eric J. Cassell and Mark Siegler
Professional Ethics and Primary Care Medicine: Beyond Dilemmas and Decorum . By Harmon L. Smith and Larry R. Churchill
Physician—Patient Decision-Making: A Study in Medical Ethics . By Douglas N. Walton
With Dignity: The Search for Medicare and Medicaid . By Sheri I. David
The Dismissal of Students with Mental Disorders. Legal Issues, Policy Considerations, and Alternative Responses .
Courtroom Toxicology . By Marshall Houts, Randall C. Baselt, and Robert H. Cravey     

Corporate Governance in Spain (with an Application of the Power Indices Approach)

This paper describes the governance system of Spanish listed firms in the early 1990's. Although the institutional setting of the Spanish Stock Exchanges differs little from other European national markets, we found important differences in several aspects of corporate governance. In particular, some of the standard mechanisms of control (e.g. boards and institutional shareholders) do not play an active role, whereas ownership is relatively concentrated. Moreover, power indices suggest that controlling blocs of large shareholders are very likely to form. We thus conclude that the ownership of shares is a pivotal mechanism in the governance of Spanish corporations.     

Surveillance of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibodies in medicolegal autopsies in Finland--monitoring early changes in HIV-seropositivity among risk groups and average population.

In order to cooperate with voluntary screening programs aimed at the surveillance of the HIV epidemic in Finland, we have studied medicolegal autopsies for HIV antibodies since 1986 using an enzyme immunoassay on postmortem sera. The investigation covered 47.4% and 39.2%, respectively, of all deaths under the age of 65 years in the metropolitan areas of Helsinki and Turku--two cities on the densely populated southern coast of Finland from which most HIV infections have thus far been detected. Nine HIV-positive cases (0.12%) were detected among the 7305 medicolegal autopsies tested in 1986 to 1990. This figure is higher than the prevalence of 0.01 to 0.03% in voluntary screening programs for the general population would suggest. Seven of our cases had previously tested positive, and two were previously unknown cases, indicating that people at high risk are clustered in the medicolegal autopsy series. Of the six cases in an early stage of infection, three committed suicide suggesting the importance of HIV-screening in suicide cases in tracing symptomless HIV carriers. Five of the cases were detected in 1990, a year when the number of new HIV infections had more than doubled compared to the previous two years. This suggests that testing of medicolegal autopsies as surrogate tests for the population gives useful information even in low-prevalence areas like Finland. Such testing has none of the ethical problems of many other back-up surveys, and may be particularly sensitive to early changes in epidemiology.     

The ADA on the Road: Disability Rights in Germany

This paper examines the impact of a "disability rights model" on the emerging disability rights movement in Germany. Traditional German disability politics and activism are based on the expansion of welfare and special needs provisions rather than on equal rights and integration. Inspired by the 1990 Americans with Disability Act, German activists adopted a disability rights model and successfully worked toward the passage of a constitutional equality amendment in 1994 and ant-discrimination legislation in 2002. Using the literature on rights mobilization, this paper argues that German disability activists use rights talk to both support and contest culturally specific approaches to disability rights, equal treatment, and the role of the state in guaranteeing welfare rights. The globalization of disability rights should not be viewed as an imposition of American norms but as a more complex process of adaptation and cultural transformation that involves constructing locally legitimate approaches to disability rights with an American import.