Forensic Pathology and the Forensic Pathologist

Pathology, compared to forensic pathology, is one of the many branches of forensic medicine that deals with the study of the structural changes caused by injury or disease. When the two words combine, forensic pathology the study will simply add the word “suspicious” before injury or disease.

Pathology has two branches. The anatomic branch deals with the structural changes of the human body, while the clinical branch focuses on laboratory examination of samples that were removed from the body or skeletal remains of a person. A forensic pathologist should be well versed in these two fields.

Prior to becoming a forensic pathologist, at least two years should be spent as an intern, with an additional one year of specialized study in order to pass the state board pathology exam. Forensic pathologists are certified at establishing the cause of death, estimating time of death, being able to distinguish homicide from suicide, inferring what type of weapon was used, identifying the deceased, and finding out the effects of trauma or the deceased's pre-existing conditions.

The Forensic Pathology Expert Will Engage In Psychological Autopsies

A forensic pathology expert can also engage in psychological autopsies. An anatomic examination is sufficient to establish cause of death as long as the forensic pathologist is given access to information of the victim. The information needed would include the surrounding circumstances, psychiatric data, life history, and other general information. Nevertheless, examination of the organ parts is often important in bolstering the forensic pathologist’s conclusions, whether such examination is clinical or microscopic. This procedure, however, would not be applicable in an exhumation case because the embalming process destroys the reliability of a microscopic laboratory testing.

Whenever a firearm is involved, the forensic pathologist will require the use of an x-ray. In the inspection of a stomach, the contents will be able to provide information as to the cause of death and even time of death. With forensic pathology, further study will confirm age, height, sex, race, weight, and even the general condition of the deceased person.

To sum it up, forensic pathology is the science that looks into the cause of death. With the use of physical investigation postmortem, evidences can be uncovered to determine the nature of the death of the deceased person. With the forensic pathology expert's application of specialized medical testing, together with other medical tools used for forensic examination, information such as physical trauma, medical intervention, as well as suicide can be revealed.