title: Forensic science and the law.
abstract: Forensic Science today makes an important contribution to the operation of the Criminal Justice System providing evidence which could help decide the guilt of a suspect. Forensic Science is able to do so because it has developed to operate within the reality determined by the Criminal Justice System. Changes that are occurring today seem to upset the relationship between Forensic Sciences and the Criminal Justice System by the creation of communication problems. Examples of these problems exist in the changes occurring in the concept of death made necessary by organ transplants. These changes have shifted the focus from the quantity of life to the quality of life and make it impossible for the Forensic Scientist to answer honestly the questions that might be put him. The need for reforms in the law in view of social changes has been recognized and in many countries attempts at such changes are afoot. With these changes a new reality is being defined. Forensic Science, being a discipline that comes first in contact with a multitude of emergent problems, has a part to play in the definition of this reality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Jayewardene
mesh_terms: D000029:Abortion, Legal; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D011247:Pregnancy; D011788:Quality of Life; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014180:Transplantation