A medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests.
A medical examiner is a government official who
- Investigates human deaths
- Determines cause of death
- Issues death certificates
- Maintains death records
- Responds to deaths in mass disasters
- Identifies unknown dead
- Other functions depending on local law
In some jurisdictions with English origins or history, a coroner performs these and other duties. Within the United States, there is a mixture of coroner and medical examiner systems, and in some states, dual systems. The meaning of these terms, duties, and requirements to hold office vary widely between jurisdictions.
Read more about Medical Examiner: Qualifications, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)