Customer Reviews

Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries)

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This is a superb book that examines the profession of medical examiners from a sociological perspective. The author spent several years observing the practices and methods of one (anonymous) urban medical examiner's office close-up, standing in at autopsies and conducting many interviews with all levels of staff.

The book looks at several topics in detail: coronary artery disease; shaken baby syndrome in the "Nanny Trial"; suicide; and organ and tissue donation. (I'm probably leaving something out here.)

The introduction is a tad jargony if you are not a sociologist or academic, but very interesting nonetheless. The author explains the difference between medical examiners (physicians) and coroners, who do not need any medical experience, are usually elected, and conduct public inquests. Much of the book looks at differences between various professions and explains why they may be competing with each other for authority and professional recognition. For example, forensic pathologists do not have the same goals as public health officials, as seen in the cases of coronary artery disease and suicide. Pathologists (looking at dead bodies) may come in conflict with clinicians (looking at the live patient), as seen in the case of shaken baby syndrome at criminal trials. The goals of pathologists are often at odds with those of organ and tissue donation advocates; the pathologist may need to do an exceptionally thorough autopsy in the case of a suspicious death or a homicide, while the organ donor advocate may insist that a patient in need of a liver should ethically take priority over the non-existent needs of a dead body.

The endnotes and bibliography are extensive and well worth reading.

As a practicing forensic pathologist, I will recomend this book to anybody interested in the topic, specially my colleagues in this line of work. THe questions and arguments expressed in it are worth considering everytime we make a decision as to cause of death and specially on something so subjective as manner of death. This book is an open invitation to reflect on topics that we take for granted.
Pedro M. Ortiz Colom MD

I highly recommend this book, but only to those people who are medicolegal death investigators. It is a unique look at our profession from a social sciences standpoint. It is not an easy read but it definately changed my perspective.

This book is not meant for the normal lay person. I am well read and have read a lot of books on forensics and autopsies. It is something like a med student would appreciate. It was convoluted and boring for me. I got about a third of the way through it and gave it away. A real waste of my $$$. Unless you are in a school for forensics, don't waste your time or money on this one.

I was expecting a book more along the lines of The Body Farm or other "True Crime" books. I found this book to be more like a thesis. It is not a recreational read but rather more like a textbook.
I should have read the product description closer

Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths offers what few competitors can: a close-up look into just how medical examiners work. The author spent three years shadowing examiners to understand how they probe questionable deaths, and Postmortem covers not just the physical but the legal, social and moral issues faced by the industry. From issues of objectivity in the face of subjective evidence to influences in headline cases, Postmortem is a title not just for the general public, but especially for the college- level medical collection.

Not a fun read...qusi scientific with enough detail to satisfy anybody shor of a fourth year med student...lots of details such as what is the difference between a medical Examiner and a Coroner...a walk through of a autopsy of an unkown death and how the ME made critical decision as to how the person died.

The author then goes into spacific areas of interest such as suicide...infant deaths...murder and the organ tissue trade.

A criticism of this book to some might be that the author uses fictious names, places and ME's in telling his stories. Although he explain this in the preface and provides extensive notes and source material this may bother the purists among us, I didn't find it to be a problem.