James E. Dimmick Boeken

This volume focuses on selected areas of pediatric pathology, placing special emphasis on the forensic aspects of embryos, placentas, fetuses, and newborns as well as offering helpful guidelines from a legal perspective.The descriptions of embryos and placentas and their use in determining the cause and the timing of fetal or embryonic demise are valuable for the expert witness. Also helpful are the chapters on the legal implications of untoward outcomes of pregnancy and the role of the expert witness in court. Authored by both a pathologist and lawyer, the latter describes pitfalls that should be avoided when giving testimony. A further chapter describes postmortem conferences with the families of the deceased. Other topics include sudden infant death syndrome, pediatric toxicology and cardiac pathology. The timely issue of child abuse is discussed in a chapter outlining an interesting community program to identify child abuse and in a provocative essay by the well-known author and pediatric pathologist, Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi.