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"Medicolegal"
is the term, which incorporates the basics of two sister professions i.e.
Medicine and Law. Everybody talks about “the law” but few, aside from lawyers, judges and law
teachers, have more than the
vaguest notion of what
constitutes “law”. The average layman often has about as much accurate
information about “the law” as he has about medicine-or life on Venus.
And, unfortunately, two professional groups suffer from more ignorance of
law and medicine than is good for them: lawyers, at least those who do not
constantly deal with medical issues in their legal practice, know very
little about the medical profession and its problems; physicians frequently
comprehend too little about the law and how it affects them in the practice
of their profession.
Medicolegal experts can provide a link between
these two professions for their smooth & effective functioning in a
scientific manner. The physician meets the law at every turn. He confronts
it when, as the treating doctor, he is subpoenaed as a witness in a
personal injury lawsuit; he meets it when his aid is sought as an expert
in connection with a claim that another member of his profession has been
negligent and when he is faced in his office or clinic by a narcotic
addict, a man with a gunshot wound, or a young couple seeking a blood
test. He is face-to-face with the law when he is required to render an
aggravating array of governmental reports or to preserve physical evidence
for the benefit of a law enforcement agency. The physician, in fact, finds
a great deal of the law intensely irritating, often because he is not
absolutely clear as to its purpose.
The following subjects deal with all the above aspects
of Law and medicine.
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Forensic Medicine |
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Medical Jurisprudence |
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Toxicology |
The terms Forensic Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence
are used in the practice of Law and Medicine respectively. These two terms
are not synonymous.
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