Custody decisions in Alabama before and after the abolition of the tender years doctrine

This study investigated the impact of the abolition of the tender years doctrine on custody decisions in divorce cases. This doctrine supported the presumption that the mother is the more suitable parent for young children. In March of 1981, the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama found this doctrine to be unconstitutional. To assess the hypothesis that this ruling had a significant effect on custodyrelated decisions, a sample of court records for divorce cases in an Alabama county was examined as representative of the state on a number of key variables. Overall, no significant differences were found on indicator variables for the comparisons before and after the ruling. There was neither an increase in custody grants to fathers nor an increase in custody requests by fathers.     

Euthanasia: a challenge for the forensic toxicologist

People die daily in the hospital. Mostly, they die because their illnesses were no longer treatable (natural death). Unfortunately, some people die an unnatural death, in particular, as the result of euthanasia. In contrast to the situation in most countries, in the Netherlands euthanasia is accepted by the courts under strict conditions. It can be very difficult for the legal authorities to establish whether a person has died from natural causes or from suicide, euthanasia, or murder. In addition to the pathologist and the lawyer, the toxicologist also has a number of problems in showing whether euthanasia has been carried out. These can consist of the following analytical problems: (a) interactions--the patients involved have frequently been receiving a large number of toxic and nontoxic drugs simultaneously; (b) identification--not all drugs administered are included in general screening procedures; (c) metabolites--a large number of metabolites may have accumulated toward the end of a long therapeutic regimen; and (d) determination--determination of quaternary muscle relaxants and their various metabolites, as well as other drugs, can be problematic. There are also toxicokinetic problems; because of poor kidney and liver function, low serum albumen, general malaise, and interactions between these factors and other drugs, the kinetics of a given drug can differ from normal. This makes it all the more difficult to determine whether the patient died from an accumulation of medication or from a so-called "euthanetic" drug mixture.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Independent instances of "souvenir" Asian skulls from the Tampa Bay area

In the summer of 1984, police in Pinellas County, Florida, confiscated six identically colored imported Asian skulls (in a shipping case) from a private citizen. In May 1988, in nearby Hillsborough County, police confiscated a very similar skull from another private citizen, who allegedly had found it in an abandoned house. Aside from slight color differences between the six found in Pinellas County and the one found in Hillsborough County, the skulls are virtually identical in their osteological characteristics and condition and in the vital statistics derived from each. Each skull is as clean and dry as those typically sold by commercial scientific supply outlets in the United States. Each is edentulous (primarily premortem), between approximately 20 and 60 years of age at death, and morphologically Asian. Five of the seven are morphologically male, one is morphologically female, and one is a mosaic with respect to gender-related features. Police, medical examiners, coroners, and forensic anthropologists should be aware of such "souvenir" specimens, in the event that they encounter similar skulls. Discriminant function analyses for race and sex yield considerably conflicting results, which underscores the need for using extreme caution when interpreting forensic science estimates based on such techniques.     

The gas chromatographic determination of carbophos in cadaveric material

The authors developed a method of malathion insecticide determination in the cadaveric material (blood and wall of the stomach) including extraction of 5 ml of blood (5 g of fragmented tissue of stomach wall) by hexan; preparative chromatographic purification of extract on silicagel layer L 5/40 mkm in hexan-diethyl ether system 10:2; Gas-liquid chromatographic investigation on column with 5% SE-30 and 5% XE-60 (Chromatograph "Colour-106" with thermionic detector). This method makes it possible to detect 72-76% of malathion added.     

2 fatalities due to hyperthermia in infancy. A contribution to forensic medicine case reports of death caused by heat

Two infants aged 4 1/2 and 8 months are reported to have been exposed to overheating by an electric blanket and a heating fan in bed for a period of up to approx. 19 hours. Dehydration complicated the effects of overheating. Due to the case history in combination with the autopsy and histological findings as well as the absence of toxicological findings the following diagnosis could be established: "Death from exhaustion as a consequence of long-lasting heat effect and dehydration." The necessity of thorough investigations in causes of death during infancy is shown by means of the two cases above. If possible, the rectal temperature should already be taken by the coroner. The public should get informed about the risks caused by the use of electric cushions, heating fans as well as floorboard heating.