Forensic Medicine in Portugal

Forensic Medicine in
Portugal
Irina Ançã Pires
Alexandra Ançã Pires
• Portugal has a single National Institute of Legal Medicine (INML) since
2001.
• It is based in Coimbra and has three branches, in Oporto, Coimbra and
Lisbon. These are known as the North, Centre and South branches
• The INML has the legal status of public institute, working under the
indirect administration of the Government (that is to say, it is
supervised by the Minister for Justice), while it enjoys administrative
and financial autonomy and has its own patrimony.
Three bodies in the INML - the executive board, the
forensic medical council and the auditor.
• The function of the Executive Board is, as its name implies, to direct the
Institute. It has a chairman and three members, who are the directors of
the north, centre and south branches.
• the main function of the Forensic medical Council is to issue expert
reports on technical and scientific issues. The law states that the
technical-scientific reports issued by the forensic medical council are not
subject to revision. They represent the definitive view of the council on
the specific question.
• the auditor, is appointed by the government and whoever is selected is
responsible for inspecting the INML’s operations, particularly from the
financial standpoint.
• Portugal's forensic medical services consist of three branch offices
and 31 Forensic Medical Offices.
• Each Branch is responsible for the forensic medical investigation work
in its local area, and each has a number of Forensic Medical Offices
under it.
• The branches work closely with the medical faculties, and are, indeed,
inseparable: the university forensic medicine section functions within
the forensic medical public services of the National Institute of Legal
Medicine.
4 Investigative technical
departments
• the Forensic Pathology Service, responsible for conducting post-mortems,
forensic histopathology, embalming, and forensic anthropology investigations;
• the Clinical Forensic Medicine Service, which deals with investigating and
examining people to describe and assess their psychophysical injuries and
sequels, in various legal domains (criminal, civil, labour and public law), and
carries out also psychiatric and psychological investigations;
• the Forensic Toxicology Service, which carries out all kinds of chemical and
toxicological investigations and laboratory tests;
• and the Forensic Biology and Genetics Service, which handles genetic
identification investigations and tests, especially in terms of the biological
investigation of paternity, individual identification, biological criminalistics,
and so forth.
Location
• Only forensic pathology (autopsies, embalming, and anthropology)
and clinical forensic medicine examinations are conducted in the
forensic medical offices. This is to avoid people and corpses having to
travel to the branch premises.
• To prevent duplication of resources, these forensic medical offices
have their premises in hospitals, through cooperation protocols
signed between the INML and each hospital, but they remain
independent of the health services, and answer only to the INML.
• Forensic medical investigations can be carried out by third parties (public
or private) recruited or proposed by the Institute. But only in exceptional
circumstances.
• Victims do not need to go to Police or Court to make complain and began
a judiciary procedure, and can go directly to the medical forensic
services.
• The cost of the investigations becomes a cost in the action and is borne
by the person or entity convicted by the court. When no guilty party is
identified, or if the guilty party is insolvent, the Government bears the
cost.
• Each expert has complete technical-scientifical freedom, specifically in
terms of working out what to do in each situation, and what conclusions
to draw, and is responsible for the investigations, reports and opinions
he/she prepares.
Laws
• Portuguese law holds that urgent forensic medical examinations are
those where it is imperative to ensure that victims of violence are
seen very quickly, with a view to collecting traces and samples that
may otherwise be lost or undergo rapid change, and to examine the
scene in cases of death by murder or manslaughter, or where this is
suspected.
• According to the law relating to the forensic medical services, no-one
can refuse to undergo any forensic medical examination when this is
found to be necessary for the inquiry or the fact-finding of any case,
as long as it is ordered by the competent judicial authority.
• According to the law, forensic medical post-mortems take place in
cases of violent or unexplained death, unless there is sufficient clinical
information which, associated with other elements, enables the
Public Prosecutor to safely decide that there is no evidence of a
crime.
• As a rule, post-mortems are carried out by one expert physician
assisted by a technician, but very often more than one expert doctor
takes part. The presence of two doctors is required in murder cases,
when crime is suspected and in complex cases.
Thank you

Forensic Medicine in Portugal

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Forensic Medicine in Portugal

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Forensic Medicine in Portugal

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Forensic Medicine in

You might also like