Medicolegal Autopsies and Pharmacogenetics

Abstract

A medicolegal cause of death investigation needs expertise from forensic pathology, imaging, toxicology, biochemistry, and genetics. Medicolegal autopsies produce reliable data to investigate unexpected natural and injury or toxic deaths and are a fundamental part of citizen’s legal protection. Medicolegal investigations can also reveal trends or patterns in society, which can be used by policymakers to implement preventive actions and to make evidence-based health or legislative initiatives. The new technology allows high-throughput procedures for disease and pharmacogenetic testing, which also can be applied for medicolegal cause of death investigation purposes. Some eye-opening cases have been reported for postmortem pharmacogenetics, underlying the potential that this young field can solve some of the most problematic medicolegal autopsy cases. The cost-effective use of pharmacogenetics in medicolegal investigation of death requires integrating research in forensic pathology, toxicology, and genetics. In order to fully utilize the new technology and concepts, it is crucial that pharmacogenetic methods are integrated to medicolegal autopsy premises and that academic research in this field is activated.