Challenges to Forensic Medicine in the Postmodern Era - the Impact of the New Technologies

Authors

  • Bianca HANGANU PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania
  • Andreea Alexandra VELNIC PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania
  • Irina Smaranda MANOILESCU Assistant Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania
  • Beatrice Gabriela IOAN Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Keywords:

forensic, new technologies, toxicology, virtopsy, DNA, challenges.

Abstract

Technology is in a quasi-permanent evolution in most professional areas, which has the potential to improve people’s lives. The new technologies are already part of our lives, being able to create facilities which we would not even imagine it could be possible relatively little time ago. Forensic medicine did not move backward from implementing the new technologies, being in this way an important support for justice as the assessment is more accurate and more valuable, the offenders are sentenced, the innocents are exonerated, and victims in mass disasters are quickly identified. In this paper the authors analyze the impact the new technologies have in different areas of forensic medicine, such as forensic toxicology- particularly using GC-Ion Trap MS and LC-MS technologies, forensic imaging applied to post-mortem examinationusing virtopsy and forensic genetics- the use and permanent refinement of DNA technology. The authors highlight, on the one hand, the improvements the new technologies brought in justice and society, and on the other hand the challenges associated with their implementation.

Author Biographies

Bianca HANGANU, PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Andreea Alexandra VELNIC, PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

PhD Student, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Irina Smaranda MANOILESCU, Assistant Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Assistant Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Beatrice Gabriela IOAN, Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Professor, PhD, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

References

Badam, R.K., Sownetha, T., Babu, D.B.G., Waghray, S., Reddy, L., Garlapati, K., Chavva, S. (2017). Virtopsy: touch-free autopsy. J Forensic Dent Sci., 9(1), 42.

Benghiac, A.G., Budacu, C., Moscalu, M., Ioan, B.G., Moldovanu, A., Haba, D. (2017). CBCT assessment of the frontal sinus volume and anatomical variations for sex determination. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine, 25(2), 174-179.

Bollinger, S.A., Thali, M.J. (2015). Imaging and virtual autopsy: looking back and forward. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci., 370(1674). pii: 20140253.

Cho M.K., Sankar P. (2004). Forensic genetics and ethical, legal and social implications beyond the clinic. Nature Genetics, 36(11Suppl), S8-12

Gorun, G.S, Dermengiu, D., Curca, G.C., Hostiuc, S., Ioan, B., Luta, V. (2010). Toxicological drivers issues in "legal high" use. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine, XVIII(4), 271-279.

Ioan, B.G., Jitaru, V., Damian, R., Damian, S.I. (2015). Study on the relationship between the concentration of ethanol in the blood, urine and the vitreous humour. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine, 23(3), 211-216.

Ioan, B., Alexa, T., Alexa, I. (2012). Do we still need the autopsy? Clinical diagnosis versus autopsy diagnosis. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine, 20(4), 307-312.

Kloosterman, A., Mapes, A., Geradts, Z., van Eijk, E., Koper, C., van den Berg, J., Verheij, S., van der Steen, M., van Asten, A. (2015). The interface between forensic science and technology: how technology could cause a paradigm and shift the role of forensic institutes in the criminal justice system. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 370(1674). pii: 20140264

Makin, K. (1997). DNA evidence-gathering curbed: top court slams RCMP. The Globe and Mail, p. A7.

Murphy E. (2007). The New Forensics: Criminal Justice, False Certainty, and the Second Generation of Scientific Evidence. California Law Review, 95(3), 721-797.

National Research Council. (2009). Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Petre-Ciudin, V., Hanganu, B., Velnic, A.A., Ioan, B.G. (2017). Epidemiology of spinal trauma in north-eastern part of Romania. Forensic Sci Int., 277(Suppl. 1), 220-221.

Roewer, L. (2013). DNA fingerprinting in forensics: past, present, future. Investig Genet, 18(4), 22

Saks, M.J., Koehler, J.J. (2005). The coming paradigm shift in forensic identification science. Science, 309, 892-895.

Scripcaru, C., Agrosoaie, I., Ceavdari, N., & Manoilescu, I. (2007). Forensic stomatological identification of a murderer. Rom J Leg Med., 15(1), 45-49.

Smith, M.L., Vorce, S.P., Holler, J.M., Shimomura, E., Magluilo, J., Jacobs, A.J., Huestis, M.A. (2007). Modern instrumental methods in Forensic Toxicology. J Anal Toxicol, 31(5), 237-9A.

Taborda, J.G.V., Arboleda-Florez, J. (2017). Forensic Medicine in the next century: some ethical challenges. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, 199, 43(2), 188-201.

Thali, M.J., Yen, K., Schweitzer, W., Vock, P., Boesch, C., Ozboda, C., Schroth, G., Ith, M., Sonnenschein, M., Doernhoefer, T., Scheurer, E., Plattner, T., Dirnhofer, R. (2003). Virtopsy, a new imaging horizon in Forensic Pathology: virtual autopsy by postmortem multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - a feasibility study. J Forensic Sci., 48(2), 386-403.

Velnic, A.A., Hanganu, B., Petre-Ciudin, V., Ioan, B.G. (2017). Clinical diagnosis versus autopsy diagnosis in head trauma. Forensic Sci Int., 277(Suppl. 1), 209.

Williams, R., Wienroth, M. (2017). Social and ethical aspects of Forensic Genetics: a critical review. Forensic Sci Rev., 29(2), 145-169.

Zieger M., Utz S. (2015). About DNA databasing and investigative genetic analysis of externally visible characteristics: A public survey. Forensic Sci Int Genet, 17, 163-172

www.omicsonline.org/pathology/forensic-pathology-innovations.php

www.isfri.org

http://www.twgpam.org/index.php/members

https://www.fbi.gov/services/laboratory/biometric-analysis/codis

https://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml

Downloads

Published

2017-12-20

How to Cite

HANGANU, B., VELNIC, A. A., MANOILESCU, I. S., & IOAN, B. G. (2017). Challenges to Forensic Medicine in the Postmodern Era - the Impact of the New Technologies. Postmodern Openings, 8(3), 12-23. Retrieved from https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/177

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2017): Postmodern Openings

Section

Theoretical articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant this journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Postmodern Openings Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND

CC_BY_NC_ND

Most read articles by the same author(s)