forensic medicine

American  

noun

1. the application of medical knowledge to questions of civil and criminal law, especially in court proceedings.

---

forensic medicine British  

noun

1. Also called: medical jurisprudence.   legal medicine.  the applied use of medical knowledge or practice, esp pathology, to the purposes of the law, as in determining the cause of death

---

forensic medicine Scientific  

/ fə-rĕn′sĭk /

1. The branch of medicine that interprets or establishes the medical facts in civil or criminal law cases.

---

Etymology

Origin of forensic medicine

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

The head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University’s medical school said that there was cyanide in the blood of all six, according to the Associated Press.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2024

After last month’s quake, around 5,000 unidentified people were buried across the quake zone, said Mr. Hilal, the professor of forensic medicine.

From New York Times • Mar. 12, 2023

"California has the most backward system in death investigation, is the most backward in forensic science and in forensic medicine," Omalu testified before the state Senate Governance and Finance Committee in 2018.

From Salon • Dec. 22, 2022

Rowland’s death probably should have been classified as a homicide, according to Maastricht University professor of forensic medicine Dr. Michael Freeman, who reviewed the autopsy report at the request of The Seattle Times.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 18, 2022

Moreover, the whole drift of modern medicine is toward a division of labor, and forensic medicine is more widely separated from the ordinary specialties of the science than these are from one another.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 25, April, 1873 by Various