The Legal Medicine Organization of Iran, as an independent body of the Judiciary, provides expert opinions in the field of forensic medicine on the basis of scientific, legal and jurisprudential principles to relevant authorities using its qualified experts and modern technologies in order to help in detection of truth and establishing justice in the society while observing accuracy, precision and speed in doing so.
Forensic medicine and its specialized sub-fields, like other fields of medicine, have undergone great developments in recent decades and everyday we witness emergence of new aspects in it. Today, because of complexity and variety of crimes, providing expert opinions in this field to help in finding the truth, without using new scientific resources and modern technologies of forensic medicine by experienced and qualified experts, is very difficult and often impossible.
Modern forensic medicine in Iran dates back to 90 years ago, when activities in this field were carried out in an office affiliated to the Ministry of Justice. Development for crime detection methods and increasing demand for forensic medicine services, that office was converted into a general office and in 1993, considering the fact of quantitative development of these services and their being more specialized, upon approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran was established to act independently under auspices of the Head of the Judiciary.
At present, Legal Medicine Organization is a specialized body that has taken remarkable steps toward achieving international standards and plays a critical role in shaping the decisions taken by relevant legal and criminal courts. This organization, with more than 320 branches throughout the country, provides about 2000000 expert opinions to relevant authorities, including legal and criminal courts. Of these cases, nearly 81% concern clinical examinations and specialized commissions, 15% relate to laboratory investigations and the remaining 4% to examinations and autopsies in cases of unnatural and suspect deaths. According to the performed survey, more than 98% of expert opinions provided by Legal Medicine Organization are accepted and used by judicial authorities.
The main activities of Legal Medicine Organization include:
- - Medical and clinical investigations
- - Diagnostic and laboratory investigations
- - Replying the questions by governmental centers and institutions requiring forensic medicine expert opinions
- - Educational activities such as training forensic medicine assistants, students of Medicine, Obstetrics and Law as well as police forces
- - Scientific and research activities.
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