Medical Examiner

Auxiliary of justice, it is always at the request of a judicial authority that the forensic pathologist acts as a specialist in forensic medicine: public prosecutor’s office, investigating judge, magistrate (criminal court, police court, civil court) Its job is to provide magistrates with information that requires medical expertise following a death, accident, illness, operation, or any other circumstance that caused bodily harm. In the event of a death of suspicious or criminal origin, of death on the public highway, of an unidentified body, the forensic doctor performs an autopsy of the body and, if necessary, additional examinations (toxicological, biological or chemical examinations, etc.). Objective: to determine the ways and means that have caused a suspicious death and, if possible, the date and time of death. To do this, he uses a whole series of instruments (scalpel, saw, forceps, retractor, microscope, etc.) to partially or fully open and examine a corpse. But the forensic pathologist does not intervene only on deceased people even if this activity occupies about a third of his time. He is also called upon to examine people who have suffered assault (rape, assault and battery (finding injuries and sexual abuse) or people in police custody.