The JSLM 'Guidelines for Notification of Unnatural Death': comparison with the systems of reporting death in other countries.
'Guidelines for Notification of Unnatural Death', published by the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine (JSLM) in 1994, has been sometimes criticised by many doctors and lawyers. In various countries, laws specify the type of deaths that should undergo post-mortem examination. The centralized system of reporting death deals with treatment-related deaths. Although the JSLM Guidelines are based on such international norms, the dispute over reporting unnatural deaths in Japan goes against the dominant global trend. One way of solving these issues is to ensure that the police transform their own death investigation apparatus to delink it from criminal investigations. And we need to press for a system that can give the information obtained in investigations back to society, such as to the medical world or other public organisations.
Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan. Electronic address: ishiharakenji@chiba-u.jp.
Kenji
K
Ishihara
Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
Hisako
H
Takeichi
Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
Hirotaro
H
Iwase
D001315:Australia; D002423:Cause of Death; D003334:Coroners and Medical Examiners; D005062:European Union; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D012958:Societies, Scientific; D014481:United States
Autopsy; Death investigation; Guidelines; Treatment-related death; Unnatural death