Bio-Medicolegal Sciences and Personal Injury/Damage Ascertainment in the Post-Genomic Era

Abstract

The first part of the chapter analyzes the techno-scientific evolution of postmodern biomedicine, highlighting the pros and cons of the holistic approach of systems biology and its clinical translation in the form of individualized precision medicine, as well as the opportunity to refound the doctor–patient relationship and the healthcare organization of the third millennium on the principles of personalized slow and value medicine. In the second part, the historical development of the bio-medicolegal sciences, their progressive disintegration into specialized subdisciplines, and the related need to find a biomolecular unitariness are discussed. The chapter then deals with the problems and the current limits of personal injury and damage ascertainment, envisaging an increase in the objectivity and accuracy of the impairment and disability assessment through the medicolegal implementation of technology platforms of in vivo functional imaging and bio-analysis, developed by postmodern biomedicine. The conclusions stress the importance of investing in human capital, through teaching and education at a university level. The main responsibility of academic institutions, indeed, is to educate toward a critical mentality and a democratic citizenship of the world, safeguarding the transmission of knowledge of the past together with the defense of the idea that it is feasible to innovate such knowledge.