Ebook364 pages10 hours
Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
As elected coroners came to be replaced by medical examiners with scientific training, the American public became fascinated with their work. From the grisly investigations showcased on highly rated television shows like C.S.I. to the bestselling mysteries that revolve around forensic science, medical examiners have never been so visible—or compelling. They, and they alone, solve the riddle of suspicious death and the existential questions that come with it. Why did someone die? Could it have been prevented? Should someone be held accountable? What are the implications of ruling a death a suicide, a homicide, or an accident? Can medical examiners unmask the perfect crime?
Postmortem goes deep inside the world of medical examiners to uncover the intricate web of pathological, social, legal, and moral issues in which they operate. Stefan Timmermans spent years in a medical examiner’s office, following cases, interviewing examiners, and watching autopsies. While he relates fascinating cases here, he is also more broadly interested in the cultural authority and responsibilities that come with being a medical examiner. Although these professionals attempt to remain objective, medical examiners are nonetheless responsible for evaluating subtle human intentions. Consequently, they may end—or start—criminal investigations, issue public health alerts, and even cause financial gain or harm to survivors. How medical examiners speak to the living on behalf of the dead, is Timmermans’s subject, revealed here in the day-to-day lives of the examiners themselves.
Postmortem goes deep inside the world of medical examiners to uncover the intricate web of pathological, social, legal, and moral issues in which they operate. Stefan Timmermans spent years in a medical examiner’s office, following cases, interviewing examiners, and watching autopsies. While he relates fascinating cases here, he is also more broadly interested in the cultural authority and responsibilities that come with being a medical examiner. Although these professionals attempt to remain objective, medical examiners are nonetheless responsible for evaluating subtle human intentions. Consequently, they may end—or start—criminal investigations, issue public health alerts, and even cause financial gain or harm to survivors. How medical examiners speak to the living on behalf of the dead, is Timmermans’s subject, revealed here in the day-to-day lives of the examiners themselves.
Read more from Stefan Timmermans
Abductive Analysis: Theorizing Qualitative Research Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsData Analysis in Qualitative Research: Theorizing with Abductive Analysis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSudden Death and the Myth of CPR Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Saving Babies?: The Consequences of Newborn Genetic Screening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gold Standard: The Challenge Of Evidence-Based Medicine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Postmortem
Related ebooks
It Can (And Does) Happen Here!: One Physician’S Four Decades-Long Journey as Coroner in Rural North Idaho Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carolina Crimes: Case Files of a Forensic Photographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Medical Detectives: Cases from the Original CSI Investigators Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coroner Series: America's Most Controversial Medical Examiner Tells All Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations: The Grisly Business Unit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Life with Death: Memoirs of a Journeyman Medical Examiner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSerial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues in Behavioral Profiling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure of Madness: Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Murderous Minds on Trial: Terrible Tales from a Forensic Psychiatrist's Casebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Catch a Killer: Hunting and Capturing the World's Most Notorious Serial Killers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behind the Murder Curtain: Special Agent Bruce Sackman Hunts Doctors and Nurses Who Kill Our Veterans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Education of a Coroner: Lessons in Investigating Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autopsy: More than you ever wanted to know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked?: Field Notes from a Funeral Director Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Solve a Murder: True Stories from a Life in Forensic Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mortician Diaries: The Dead-Honest Truth from a Life Spent with Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Silent Witnesses: The Often Gruesome but Always Fascinating History of Forensic Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Mourning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Matter of Life and Death: Inside the Hidden World of the Pathologist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Who Swallowed a Toothbrush: And Other Bizarre Medical Cases Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Funerals to Die For: The Craziest, Creepiest, and Most Bizarre Funeral Traditions and Practices Ever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Medical For You
The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mediterranean Diet Meal Prep Cookbook: Easy And Healthy Recipes You Can Meal Prep For The Week Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ (Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ATOMIC HABITS:: How to Disagree With Your Brain so You Can Break Bad Habits and End Negative Thinking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women With Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Living Daily With Adult ADD or ADHD: 365 Tips o the Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Book of Simple Herbal Remedies: Discover over 100 herbal Medicine for all kinds of Ailment Inspired By Barbara O'Neill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHerbal Healing for Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peptide Protocols: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tight Hip Twisted Core: The Key To Unresolved Pain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Lives: True Stories from People Who Live with Mental Illness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Cause Unknown": The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Postmortem
Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars
4/5
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was disappointed because it only detailed ONE autopsy, and not one single picture. Though well-researched and well-written, it was not what I expected. My studies included watching autopsies at the County Coroner's of the Sheriff's dept. and I can definitely agree on a certain comment Mr. Timmermans made: page 54, " . . . forensic pathologists . . . anticpate the scientific puzzle to be solved . . . frustration comes from a lack of significant findings."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an academic ethnography of medical examiners, looking into how they interpret evidence, how they construct their authority, and the challenges they face as medicine and the legal system change. It's written about as compellingly as the usual ethnography, which means I only fell asleep reading it twice. But there are some interesting tidbits in here for people with practice slogging through academic prose.
Book preview
Postmortem - Stefan Timmermans
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1