Interview with a forensic pathologist
These days I’m doing my forensic appointment and today we got to do some presentations, and one of the lecturers that came to observe the presentations was one of my favourite forensic pathologists and I got the chance to ask some questions with him, so I’m posting my conversation down here. So here we go.
Q : Can a forensic pathologist become a good murderer?
A : Well that’s an interesting question, I have never thought about it before, I guess yes a forensic pathologist can be a good killer with his knowledge than an average person.
However most of these murders are done because of sudden anger and instantaneous situations. Therefore in situations like that even a forensic pathologist won’t be able to commit a murder without leaving any evidence.
However if you give me time to plan, like months or an year then yes I’ll be able to commit a murder without getting caught.
Q : Has there any instances in history where a forensic pathologist getting caught for committing a murder?
A : Not to my knowledge there has been no cases like that.
Q : Have you ever had any influence from people from higher position to report inaccurate findings in an autopsy or medico legal report?
In Sri Lanka almost everything is influenced by politics, however I’ve never have experienced such a situation in my career with requests from higher positions to do such a thing.
However there has been numerous occasions where I was approached by people who committed the crimes sometimes in a friendly manner and sometimes pleading to help them in medico legal reporting.
But then I tell them you should have thought about all that when you committed the crime not now. Up to now there has been no occasions where there have been any influence, but no one can tell about the future and things might change.
Q : What do you think about the Kennedy assassination? there were 3 shots fired in 6 seconds which was impossible to do with that gun
A: I think in real life situation on that day with that conditions the shooter might have been able to done it like that. People say that there is a second gunman was involved. But I think people make conspiracy theories up when they don’t know how to explain something.
There is an abrasion collar in the front of of Kennedy’s neck (abrasion collar is an entry wound of a bullet) which suggest that a shot has been fired from the front. But the forensic medical explanation to that was Kennedy was wearing a tie at that occasion and the tight tie must have cause an exit wound to look like an entry wound with an abrasion collar. But people make these things as evidence for conspiracy theories.
Q : Any other interesting story?
A: This is also associated with assassination and ironically from America. Ronald Reagan was an american president as you know escaped from assassination. There the assassin used bullets that will explode once it’s inside the body causing more damage.
However, when the doctors were trying to operate Reagan they found that there are some bullets left inside without being detonated. So they had to be extra careful in surgery not to trigger the bullets that have failed to detonate inside the body.
These kinds of bullets are most commonly used in situations where the assassin doesn’t want to kill or harm any bystanders. Usually a typical bullet can pass through a body and hit a second person but these bullets will detonate inside and will not pass through to hit another person.
We also talked about movies, popular cases in the country where we worked as a forensic pathologist. Controversial topics like whether child monks should be allowed to become monks or is it another form of child abuse? And the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
I had so much to talk but so little time. I look forward towards our next meetup.