Book Review ‘Ilmu Kedokteran Forensik’ (Indonesian Version)

Editorial

Written by Laurentius Oktavianus, Forensic Medicine, also known as Legal Medicine, is one of the specialist branches of Medical Sciences, which studies the use of medical science in the interests of law enforcement and justice. In the community, there are often violations of the law concerning the body and life of humans. For investigating and investigating and resolving these legal issues at a further level until finally terminating the case in court, assistance from various experts in the related field is needed to make clear the course of events and the interrelationships between actions with each other in the series of events. In the event that there are victims, both those who are still alive and those who died as a result of the incident, an expert in the medical field is required to provide an explanation for the parties handling the case. Doctors who are expected to assist in the trial process will be armed with the medical knowledge they have gathered in the field of Forensic Medicine.

In its simplest form, forensic medicine has been known since the Babylonian era, which noted the provision that 'doctors' at that time had an obligation to cure their patients with compensation provisions if this was not achieved. History records Anthitius, a doctor in ancient Rome who at a Forum, a kind of judicial institution at that time, stated that of the 21 wounds found in the body of the Emperor Julius Caesar, only one wound penetrated the second rib of the front left is a deadly wound. The name Forensic medicine is said to come from the words of this forum. In further development, it turns out that forensic medicine is not necessarily useful in matters of law enforcement and justice in the court area, but also useful in terms of other social life, for example in helping to settle fair insurance claims, both for insured parties and insurers , in helping to solve the problem of paternity (discovery of fatherhood), helping work safety efforts in the industrial and automotive fields by collecting data on victims of industrial accidents and traffic accidents and so on.

To be able to provide maximum assistance for the various purposes mentioned above, a doctor is required to be able to utilize his medical knowledge optimally. In carrying out its function as a doctor who is asked to assist in forensic medical examinations by investigators, the doctor is required by law to do it honestly and to use the best knowledge possible. Assistance that must be provided by a doctor if requested by the investigator includes conducting a forensic medical examination of a person, both for a living victim, a death victim and a body part or an object that is thought to originate from the human body. If the doctor neglects to provide this assistance, then he can be threatened with imprisonment. In a criminal case that causes casualties, doctors are expected to be able to find abnormalities that occur in the body of the victim, if the abnormality arises, what causes it and the consequences of the victim's health. In the event that the victim dies, the doctor is expected to be able to explain the cause of death, how the mechanism of the death occurred, and help in estimating the time of death and the estimated way of death. For all of that, in the field of forensic medicine studied medico-legal, tanatology, traumatology, toxicology, examination techniques and everything related, so that all doctors in fulfilling their obligations help investigators, can truly utilize all medical knowledge for the benefit of the judiciary and interests others that are beneficial to community life. Visum et repertum is a statement made by a doctor at the request of an authorized investigator regarding the results of medical examinations on humans, whether life or death or parts or suspected parts of the human body, based on their knowledge and under oath, for the benefit of the court. Visum et repertum describes everything about the results of medical examinations contained in the News

section, which can therefore be considered as a substitute for evidence. Visum et repertum also contains information or opinions of doctors regarding the results of medical examinations contained in the Conclusions section.