TRANSCRIBED BY: Jorap Rosal & Rika De Borja Page 1 of 16 COPYREAD AND COMPILED BY: Mhyko  LEGAL AND FORENSIC MEDICINE NOTES I would like to give thanks to everyone who helped me in making this notes possible. Thanks to Jorap and Rika for lending me their time transcribing and sharing their notes. Thank you Trish, Vincent A., Leslee, yVee, and Shar for unselfishly sharing your audio recordings. - Mhyko This is my first trans hahaha! Hello hello to:  My Med, Surg, Neuro, and ano pa nga yung isa? Pedia! I ♥ you groupmates.   L Group (aka CPC Group 1) and PPG.   The good looking UERM Red Cross officers: Rey, Eloise, Leigh, Carlo, Jean, Miko and Kat, Fid, Therese and Thea.   2012 APO Men’s basketball team, UERM Palarong Med Volleyball, Football and T-Tennis teams. Pati narin basketball, badminton, swimming, and sepaktakraw teams.  Hi to my grandmother who is from 2013. Mag-ballroom naman tayo minsan. I ♥ you grandma!  - jorap Hello 2012! Goodluck satin lahat sa exams.. Konting tiis nalang.. Days to go nalang before sembreak. Yey!! Aral tayo lahat mabuti.. Miko thanks dahil ang tyaga nyo gumawa. Notes ko lang naman nadagdag ko eh. Pero I'm glad I helped a little. Anyway, Godbless 2012! :) -rika (Sent from my iPod) LEGEND: Normal text : lecture and recordings from section a & b Italics : book and 2011 trans INTRODUCTION SCOPE OF LEGAL MEDICINE It is the application of medical and paramedical sciences as demanded by law and administration of justice. The knowledge of the nature and extent of wounds has been acquired in surgery, abortion in gynecology, sudden death, and effects of trauma in pathology, etc. aside from having knowledge of the basic medical sciences, like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, physics, and other allied sciences. Strictly speaking, LEGAL MEDICINE is primarily the application of medicine to legal cases while FORENSIC MEDICINE concerns with the application of medical science to elucidate legal problems. MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE denotes knowledge of law in relation to the practice of medicine. It concerns with the study of the rights, duties, and obligations of a medical practitioner with particular reference to those arising from doctor-patient relationship. NATURE OF THE STUDY OF LEGAL MEDICINE A physician who specializes or is involved primarily with medico- legal duties is known as MEDICAL JURIST (medical examiner, medico-legal officer, medico legal expert) DISTINCTION BETWEEN AN ORDINARY PHYSICIAN AND A MEDICAL JURIST An ordinary physician sees an injury or disease on the point of view of treatment, whole a medico-jurist sees injury or disease on the point of view of cause. The purpose of an ordinary physician examining a patient is to arrive at a definite diagnosis so that appropriate treatment can be instituted, while the purpose of the medical jurist in examining a patient is to include those bodily lesions in his report and testify before the court or before an investigative boy; thus giving justice to whom it is due. Minor or trivial injuries are USUALLY ignored by an ordinary clinician inasmuch as they do not require usual treatment. Superficial abrasions, small contusion, and other minor injuries will heal without medication. However, a medical jurist must record all bodily injuries even if they are small or minor because these injuries may be proofs to qualify the crime or to justify the act. PRINCIPLE OF STARE DECICIS Whom the court has once laid down a principle of law or interpretations as applied to certain state of facts, it will adhere to and apply to all future cases where the facts are substantially the same What the Supreme Court lays down is the principle of law, all its subjects are duty-bound to follow Para wala nang tanungan ang mas madaling intindihing meaning nito ay: "Maintain what has been decided and do not alter that which has been established" THREE BRANCHES OF THE GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE - Tasked to IMPLEMENT THE LAW  The office of the president and  The different department bureaus LEGISLATIVE - They are tasked to MAKE THE LAW  The upper house: The Senate  The lower house: The House of Representatives JUDICIARY - Tasked to APPLY or INTERPRET THE LAW  Supreme Court: Chief Justices  Court of Appeals  Sandiganbayan  The Regional Trial Court Which Branch is The Most Powerful? None. They are all equal branches of the government. No one is above the other. If congress passes a bill, it can be vetoed by the government. Congress can overturn the veto by a vote of two-thirds. If the president accepts the bill, the Supreme Court can strike it down as unconstitutional. Who appoints justices to the Supreme Court? The president. Who submits the budget for the Supreme Court? The congress. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNING APPLICATIONS AND EFFECTS OF LAWS IGNORANCE OF THE LAW EXCUSES NO ONE FROM COMPLIANCE THEREWITH OR “IGNORANTIA LEGIS NOMINEM EXCUSAT” You cannot invoke the excuse that you are doctors, that it’s ok for you not know the law because you are not lawyers In our current academic status, we are considered more knowledgeable and learned than an ordinary layman, it should be considered an aggravating circumstance for us not to know the law. Ignorance is not an excuse. Know your laws. Nice to know: When a congressman sponsors a health bill, it will then be introduced / passed on to the committee of health composed of 40-50 congressmen where the bill goes through public hearings. So the committee can either kill it there and/or calendar it for three separate meetings in the lower house. At the third meeting, congressmen will vote “Nay” or “Yey”. After that, the bill goes to the senate and will again undergo three separate meetings. They have only up to three years to do that because they re-elect every three years. LAWS SHALL HAVE NO RETROACTIVE EFFECT UNLESS THE CONTRARY IS PROVIDED Laws should always be prospective unless it is favorable for the accused. Laws take effect ONLY AFTER 15 DAYS after the law’s publication in a journal/common medium A murderer was sentenced to life and during his stay in prison, the sentence for murder was decreased to 25 years. Since 25 years is MORE FAVORABLE than life in prison, the new law will apply to them. If a law was passed punishing students who cheat in med school, retroactive to 50 years, is this constitutional? NO. (Amen to