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Erschienen in: International Journal of Legal Medicine 4/2017

20.06.2017 | Editorial

P5 medicine and justice: the future is now

verfasst von: Santo Davide Ferrara

Erschienen in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Ausgabe 4/2017

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Excerpt

The recent and rapid evolution of science, in its various connotations and in all its many forms, typical of the ‘post-modern society of risk’, at once globalized and glocalized, have not failed to influence legal medicine and the actions that characterize the professional scientific community, which fosters it with important, albeit undervalued, routine work. From reflections on this evolutionary stem, the considerations proposed for the attention of the readers, in the logical order set out, are as follows, from point 1 to point 9, with the hope of fostering a collegial exchange of ideas and actions.
1.
It is universally acknowledged and widely shared in the scientific community that the bio-medicolegal sciences are characterized by identity of ‘methodology for ascertainment’, ‘criteria for evaluation’ and for the solution of the historical problem and issues of ‘causality’ occurring in daily routine work.
 
2.
The identity is confirmed in the ‘historical background’, from which are derived: the early writings on ‘pharmacology and poisons’ of the third millennium before Christ, in China; the ‘Code of Hammurabi’, in Mesopotamia; the healthcare-related documents inherent to the medical profession in Greek civilization; the lex Aquileia and Justinian of Roman civilization and the ancient world of Charlemagne and the middle ages; the first documents concerning ‘medico-legal autopsies’; the fundamental treaties of Zacchia in the seventeenth century, as well as the first chairs of legal medicine established between the end of the eighteenth (´700) and the beginning of the nineteenth century (´800), in which the ‘birth of modern legal medicine’ can be placed and the ‘unitarian knowledge’ underwent a process of consolidation, remaining unchanged until about the middle of the last century, with the beginning of the fragmentation into specialized knowledge.
 
3.
It is generally agreed that the same knowledges are distinguished by a significant number of different ‘techniques and methods’, elaborated, applied and used, as well as by ‘theories and criteria’ of critical interpretation, which imply a dignity and value of disciplines, namely, forensic pathology, genetics, toxicology, anthropology, psychiatry and criminology.
 
4.
It is equally foreseeable that the historical unitarian knowledge of the disciplines, which sustained a process of fragmentation during the last decades, will most likely restore the original unitariness by means of interdisciplinary research and transdisciplinary innovations, in a dynamic and cyclic process of Hegelian and Vichian evolution of history, in general, and of science, in particular.
 
5.
As an outcome of the process, the ‘present’ finds general and transversal connotation in the respective definitions of Antonio Cazzaniga and the European Council of Legal Medicine, as ‘the goal of legal and forensic medicine is to discover the truth so that justice be done’ and legal medicine finds its basis and raison d’être as ‘the application of medical knowledge and methodology to the resolution of legal questions and problems for individuals and society’.
 
6.
In this context, the result of the historical process and the cogent themes of greatest importance that affect the bio-medicolegal sciences are the ‘lack of knowledge’, the ‘evidence’ of the knowledge acquired and its value in the various disciplines and the development of ‘education and training’ of the young community who are coming into contact with such sciences.
 
7.
The lack, or black holes, of the most important and general knowledge will govern the direction of future research, specifically within the fields of dating, markers of disease and damage, to be understood as disease in evolution and stabilized disease, as well as in personal identification, in dating estimation and in cause of death and criminogenesis.
 
Literatur
1.
Zurück zum Zitat Ferrara SD, Boscolo-Berto R, Viel G (2013) Malpractice and medical liability. European state of the art and guidelines. Springer-Verlag, HeidelbergCrossRef Ferrara SD, Boscolo-Berto R, Viel G (2013) Malpractice and medical liability. European state of the art and guidelines. Springer-Verlag, HeidelbergCrossRef
2.
Zurück zum Zitat Ferrara SD, Boscolo-Berto R, Viel G (2016) Personal injury and damage ascertainment under civil law. State-of-the-art and international guidelines. Springer-Verlag, HeidelbergCrossRef Ferrara SD, Boscolo-Berto R, Viel G (2016) Personal injury and damage ascertainment under civil law. State-of-the-art and international guidelines. Springer-Verlag, HeidelbergCrossRef
Metadaten
Titel
P5 medicine and justice: the future is now
verfasst von
Santo Davide Ferrara
Publikationsdatum
20.06.2017
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
International Journal of Legal Medicine / Ausgabe 4/2017
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Elektronische ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1624-4

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