A case of suicide disguised as natural death.
A case report describing the suicide of a physician classified initially as a natural death. Faced with the vehement protest of the family of the deceased the magistrate decided to request a 'preventive' forensic autopsy. Forensic investigations revealed the cause of death as being a pentobarbital intoxication and the circumstances favoured the hypothesis of a genuine suicide. This case illustrates that the tendency of magistrates to request or not an autopsy is related to their experience or intuition.
Institut universitaire de Médecine légale, Bugnon 21, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.
C
C
Brandt-Casadevall
T
T
Krompecher
C
C
Giroud
P
P
Mangin
D001344:Autopsy; D008192:Deception; D062787:Drug Overdose; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000506:poisoning*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010424:Pentobarbital / Q000506:poisoning*; D013405:Suicide; D013557:Switzerland
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D010424:Pentobarbital