An unusual case of a double casualty during sexual intercourse

Sudden death during sexual activity is generally caused by natural diseases, like coronary sclerosis and myocardial infarction. Only a few case reports describe outer circumstances as responsible for the fatal outcome. This is a case report of a couple that drowned within a car sinking into a river. The extraordinary scenery led to the supposition that sexual intercourse was involved with these fatalities. The victims--a young woman and a young man, both had children, the man was married--kept up an extramarital liaison. Both were reported missing by their relatives days before the corpses could be recovered.     

Assessment of exposure to opiates and cocaine during pregnancy in a Mediterranean city: preliminary results of the "Meconium Project"

For the first time in Europe, the "Meconium Project" aimed to estimate the prevalence of drug use by pregnant women and the effects of exposure to illicit drugs during pregnancy on the fetus and infant. Between October 2002 and February 2004, 1151 (79%) dyads among the 1439 mother-infant dyads from the Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain, met eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in the study. We present preliminary results on the first 830 meconium samples and 549 mother-infant dyads, for which statistical analysis of socio-economic and demographic characteristics and newborn somatometry was completed. The meconium analysis showed an overall 7.9% positivity for drugs of abuse, with 6-monoacetylmorphine and cocaine being the analytes, most frequently found in samples positive for opiates and cocaine. Structured interview disclosed 1.3, 1.8 and 1.3% of mothers exposed to opiates, cocaine and both drugs, while only one mother declared ecstasy consumption. Meconium analysis showed that prevalence of opiates, cocaine and combined drugs exposure was 8.7, 4.4 and 2.2%, respectively, and confirmed the case of ecstasy use. Arecoline, the main areca nut alkaloid, was found in meconium specimens from four Asiatic newborns, whose mothers declared beetle nut consumption during pregnancy. Parental ethnicity was not associated with drug use, nor was the social class, although a higher tendency toward drug consumption was observed in professional and partly skilled mothers. Drug consuming mothers showed a higher number of previous pregnancies and abortions (p<0.05) when compared to non-consumer mothers (meconium negative test), probably due to a lack of family planning. Consumption of opiates and cocaine during pregnancy was associated with active tobacco smoking, a higher number of smoked cigarettes and cannabis use. Exposure status and smoking behavior correlated with significantly lower birth weight in newborns from mothers exposed only to cocaine and to opiates and cocaine simultaneously. Of the four newborns exposed to arecoline, one showed a low birth weight, low intrauterine growth, hyporeflexia and hypotonia.     

Military Criminal Procedures and Judicial Guarantees: The Example of Switzerland

Since the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, scant attention has beendevoted to military tribunals. Only with the creation of theICTY and the ICTR has civil society started reconsidering thequestion of which fora might be better suited for trying individualsresponsible for war crimes and other gross human rights violations.The aim of this paper is to illustrate the Swiss military judicialsystem. It analyses, on the one hand, the judicial guaranteesprovided for in the Swiss Military Penal Code and the Code ofMilitary Penal Procedure. On the other hand, it discusses thejudicial guarantees afforded in the only two war-crimes trialsheld by the Swiss military justice — the G case and theNiyonteze case — which involved civilians with foreignnationality. Finally, the paper argues against the abolitionof military judicial systems.     

An initially unexplained death during prison sentence. Diagnostic verification by atomic absorption spectrometry

The authors report on the death of a 25-year-old man due to electric current in prison, which was not recognized at first. The fatal accident was caused by a self-made electric kettle. The only electrothermal skin lesions were some pinhead-sized electric marks on the left thumb. Careful external inspection of the body in combination with an analysis of the conductor material (aluminium) by means of atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) revealed the cause of death and the source of accidental electrocution.     

Good faith in international transactions

Conclusion Historically, the conception of good faith has been shaped by a variety of forces — political, mercantile and religious among them. Similarly, the CISG also treats the duty of good faith in a holistic manner; rather that attempt to explicitly define the good faith obligation in isolated provisions, the drafters of the CISG marked good faith as an integral and pervasive requirement. The drafters rightly understood that unfair dealing is best recognized in specific factual scenarios; judges and arbitrators will know bad faith when they see it. Thus, the drafters designed a systematic approach to international sales transactions with the assumption that the basic obligations of good faith and fair dealing are understood by the parties. In so doing, they have provided a source of confidence to traders who, due to the nature of the modern international marketplace, must forge their agreements fax-to-fax rather than face-to-face.Law Clerk, Allan Kanner & Associates, New Orleans, Louisiana. B.A., 1989, Georgetown University; J.D. candidate, 1994, Tulane Law School. For their many valuable suggestions, grateful acknowledgement is made to Chris Anderson, Carla Bachechi and Joachim Zekoll.     

Research, policy, and the National Health Service

The National Health Service is a system designed to bring about a rational use and distribution of resources yet which largely ignores the contribution of the research community. With a relatively closed health policy arena, there are few customers for policy-oriented research. With responsibility for funding research concentrated at the center and responsibility for delivering services at the periphery, the research community finds itself in limbo. In comparison to both the U.S. and Canada, Britain therefore offers an example of research both underfinanced and undervalued. However, research has made some significant contributions in areas where there has been a perceived use for its findings to support service developments. And the changes now being introduced in Britain's NHS are likely to create a new market for research as the system adopts some North American ideas and becomes less consensual and more pluralistic.