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Back to the Future - Part 2. Post-mortem assessment and evolutionary role of the bio-medicolegal sciences

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Abstract

Part 2 of the review “Back to the Future” is dedicated to the evolutionary role of the bio-medicolegal sciences, reporting the historical profiles, the state of the art, and prospects for future development of the main related techniques and methods of the ancillary disciplines that have risen to the role of “autonomous” sciences, namely, Genetics and Genomics, Toxicology, Radiology, and Imaging, involved in historic synergy in the “post-mortem assessment,” together with the mother discipline Legal Medicine, by way of its primary fundament, universally denominated as Forensic Pathology. The evolution of the scientific research and the increased accuracy of the various disciplines will be oriented towards the elaboration of an “algorithm,” able to weigh the value of “evidence” placed at the disposal of the “justice system” as real truth and proof.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. Thomas Dewis for his language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University-Hospital of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Santo Davide Ferrara, Giovanni Cecchetto, Donata Favretto & Massimo Montisci

  2. Department of Biomedical, Biotechnological and Translational Medicine, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

    Rossana Cecchi

  3. University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Silke Grabherr

  4. Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka, Japan

    Takaki Ishikawa

  5. Department of Forensic Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan

    Toshikazu Kondo

  6. Institute of Legal Medicine, University-Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany

    Heidi Pfeiffer & Marielle Vennemann

  7. Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, Section of Medical Humanities, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Maurizio Rippa Bonati

  8. Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

    Dina Shokry

  9. Institute of Legal Medicine, University-Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

    Thomas Bajanowski

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  1. Santo Davide Ferrara
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  2. Giovanni Cecchetto
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  3. Rossana Cecchi
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  10. Maurizio Rippa Bonati
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  11. Dina Shokry
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  12. Marielle Vennemann
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  13. Thomas Bajanowski
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Correspondence to Santo Davide Ferrara.

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Ferrara, S.D., Cecchetto, G., Cecchi, R. et al. Back to the Future - Part 2. Post-mortem assessment and evolutionary role of the bio-medicolegal sciences. Int J Legal Med 131, 1085–1101 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1585-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1585-7

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