Forensic science最新文献

A procedure for fast screening of urine samples is described. TLC and GC equipped with NPD enable detection of therapeutic doses of drugs to be made in a short time. Tables of retention values for TLC and GC are also presented. TLC detects drugs with a sequence of three reagents. GC screening is carried out with a temperature programmed run of 30 °C/min up to 290 °C. For the determination of retention indices new polar phases with suitable thermal stabilities such as OV-225 and OV-275 are used.

After having been acquainted with the historical development of euthanasia, the following steps for assitance in dying, called passive euthanasia are being discussed.

• 1.

  a) Assistance during dying without speeding up death is the self-evident duty of a doctor.

• 2.

  b) Assistance during death and speeding up the same as an unavoidable result of therapeutical treatment, more or less desired or more or less unavoidable.

• 3.

  c) Assistance through letting the patient die by abandoning all therapeutical means, when these would only lead to a short extension of life time.

No doctor is compelled to take measures to extend life if it is against the will of the patient. He is not even entitled to do so.

A special problem is the abandoning of extended operative treatment, this borders on the so called active enthanasia.

The dying patient always has the same right of treatment by a doctor as well as nursing like all other suffering human beings.

The decision to let a patient die should not result in leaving him by himself and to abandon all nursing as well. Such steps would include letting him lie in dirty linen, not sucking off the mucous secretion from the trachea, refusal to assist during mealtimes, non-assistance during cathetering, and the removal of the dying person to the bathroom, or any other remote corner of the hospital. No dying person should stay without help. Loneliness especially is the greatest pain of a dying patient.

Concentration levels of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T in blood and viscera in a case of fatal intoxication with “Tributon” are given.

Since the toxicity of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), widely used as herbicides in domestic and agricultural situations is very low, little information exists on human toxicology and particularly on analytical data in forensic material in cases of fatal poisoning. The reason of this paper is to provide further information on the concentration levels of these compounds in viscera in cases of fatal, accidentally or suicidal, poisoning.

Euthanasia has for a long time been the object of very lively discussions in Poland. This article contains the views of scientists from various fields of science, especially medical doctors of different specialities. All of them have very serious objections to euthanasia and are against its practical application not only from the medical point of view but first of all for purely humanitarian reasons.

Polish penal law regards murder on request as delictum sui generis, i.e., as a kind of privileged crime as compared with common murder. Article No. 150 of the Polish penal law demands two features to characterise euthanasia: (1) the delinquent must act on grounds of compassion towards his victim, and (2) on the victim's request. The patient must be in such a state that gives reason for compassion. The request to shorten somebody's life must be very distinct, direct, firm, conscious and convincing. Persons under age, mentally defective or unconscious cannot express such a wish. Polish penal law punishes with utmost severity perpetrators of active euthanasia even in such cases in which the delinquent was moved by the most noble feelings. Only when it comes to penalty is distinction made between such a delinquent and a common murderer.

A rapid increase in fatal accidental dextropropoxyphene poisonings which is proportional to the increased use of the drug is reported. In 30 accidental poisonings dextropropoxyphene was responsible for 50% of the cases, and is the most common accidental medical poisoning at the present time. This is probably due to the unappreciated narrow margin between therapeutic and fatal dose and the simultaneous intake of alcohol which increases the resorbtion speed from the gastro -intestinal tract. In Denmark a slow-release preparation is frequently used, which is especially dangerous because of repeated dosage by the patient attempting to induce the therapeutic effect more quickly.

181 medicolegal and clinicopathological autopsy cases with subendocardial haemorrhages were studied with special reference to the primary conditions which might have triggered the haemorrhages, the time interval between the onset of these conditions and death, the gross and microscopic appearances of the subendocardium and other parts of the heart and the cause of death.

There was a wide panorama of conditions associated with subendocardial haemorrhages: Trauma, poisoning, epilepsy, surgical and obstetric shock, intracranial diseases and others with the same sudden onset of a process which caused general hypoxia. Death occurred immediately or up to 24 days after the trauma or onset of the primary condition. The subendocardial haemorrhages were associated with myocytic necrosis, inflammatory reaction and vascular lesions in the entire myocardium. The subendocardial regions and the apexes of the papillary muscles were the most common sites of manifestations of the general hypoxic cardiovascular injury. The morphological alterations correlated well with the time lapse after the onset of the associated condition. In 27 cases, or 15 per cent, death was attributed to cardiovascular disturbances, presumably caused by the lesions described. In the rest of the cases, cardiovascular disturbances were not clinically registered due to the short time of survival, or were transient or absent, despite the presence of widely spread cardiovascular lesions. It is suggested that in cases with clinically transient or asymptornatic recent hypoxic cardiovascular lesions there is a possibility for a silent progression of the pathological process in chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy.

An unusual suicide is described where the deceased, a schizophrenic young man in perfect physical health, deliberately injected himself subcutaneously with snake venom, by means of a syringe. The circumstances, autopsy findings and laboratory investigations are recorded.

Swiss male albino mice were treated subcutaneously with the main cannabinoids (CBN, CBD, Δ⁹-THC) at the dosage of 1 mg/kg per day for 30 days, and with the crude resin. At the end of the treatment, after supramaximal stimulation of the sciatic nerve, a significant decrease of both maximal twitch and tetanus tensions was observed in Δ⁹-THC-treated animals; CBD and resin treatment produced some decrease in active tension, while CBN treatment induced an enhancement of the contractile strength.

Histology showed lesions interpretable as due to muscular dystrophy.

Analysis of protein and hydroxyproline muscular content showed a marked reduction in protein in all treated animals, with a corresponding high increase in hydroxyproline content.