Heart of a murder victim
The medical examiner (ME) career is an American invention that has existed for only a century. Medical examiners, for the most part, are appointed to their positions and must be licensed physicians with extensive formal training in medical and legal death investigations. Unlike a coroner, the medical examiner is expected to use his or her medical expertise to find out how a person died.
Medical examiners often visit the scenes of deaths or crimes to examine corpses and to look for evidence that the police may not recognize as being related to the cause of death. They need to determine the identity of the deceased person, the exact time of death, the manner of death and the medical cause of death. According to the Career Guide for Medical Examiner from the State of Virginia, the following tasks are required from that state’s medical examiner position:
- Investigate sudden and unnatural deaths.
- Perform forensic medicine and pathology consultations.
- Counsel families regarding manner and cause of death.
- Act as a resource for forensic pathology and general forensic science information.
- Testify in court to facts and conclusions disclosed by autopsies performed by the examiner, or as directed or in the presence of the examiner.
- Make physical examinations and tests incident to any matter of a criminal nature up for consideration before either court or district attorney when requested to do so.
- Perform such other duties of a pathological or medicolegal nature as may be required.
- Serve subpoenas requiring the attendance of witnesses at any inquest to be held by such medical examiner, or other order or writs.
Medical examiners also want to know if a weapon was used. Sometimes, weapons are not ordinarily thought of as weapons (such as baseball bats, etc.), so medical examiners need to collect this evidence along with any hair, fibers, bodily fluids and trace chemicals to help that medical examiner reconstruct the way a person died.
You must first earn a medical degree to work as a medical examiner, and your best bet would be to find a medical degree with a forensic specialty. Often, some states may require a degree in pathology as well.
While there are many different specialties involved with the job as a medical examiner, you are not expected to know everything. Medical examiners often hire forensic scientists to perform autopsies to determine the cause of a person’s death and to assist with different techniques necessary to conduct a precise and accurate investigation.
However, if you know where you’d like to live and work, you might learn more about that locality’s requirements for a medical examiner. For instance, Anoka County, Minnesota requires that their medical examiners:
- Meet standards established by the U.S. Department of Justice Guidelines for Death Investigation [PDF]
- Follows procedures accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners
While these requirements are specific to this particular Minnesota county, you may find that their specifications would be a benefit to any medical examiner’s job throughout the U.S.
The word, “autopsy,” is derived from a Greek word autopsia meaning ’see for yourself.’ In most cases, however, a specially-trained physician or pathologist conducts the viewing. The objective behind an autopsy, also known as a postmortem examination, necropsy, or obduction, is to examine a corpse to determine a cause of death or to evaluate any disease or injury that was present at the time of death.