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(More customer reviews)Forensic medicine is a fascinating field, but one that is often shielded from the public. Most people know nothing about it other than what they see on television. This book gives the reader a real insider's perspective on this very unique and sometimes mysterious profession.
As a lawyer, I often work with medical examiners on legal issues. However, I knew very little of the development of their field or their craft. I found this book very informative and surprisingly entertaining.
Dr. Jentzen went one step further - he made me realize what an extremely humane profession forensic medicine really is.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Death Investigation in America: Coroners, Medical Examiners, and the Pursuit of Medical Certainty
A death occurs at home, in a hospital, on a street: why? As Jeffrey Jentzen reveals, we often never know. Why is the American system of death investigation so inconsistent and inadequate? What can the events of the assassination of President Kennedy, killing of Bobby Kennedy, and Chappaquiddick reveal about the state of death investigation?
If communities in early America had a coroner at all, he was politically appointed and poorly trained. As medicine became more sophisticated and the medical profession more confident, physicians struggled to establish a professionalized, physician-led system of death investigation. The conflict between them and the coroners, as well as politicians and law enforcement agencies, led to the patchwork of local laws and practices that persist to this day.
In this unique political and cultural history, Jentzen draws on archives, interviews, and his own career as a medical examiner to look at the way that a long-standing professional and political rivalry controls public medical knowledge and public health.
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