Anal Examinations in Cases of Alleged Homosexuality

Anal examinations are forcibly conducted in many countries where consensual anal intercourse is considered a criminal act. They are conducted almost exclusively on males in an effort to “prove” that they are “homosexuals” despite the fact that anal intercourse is not a necessary determinant of “homosexual activity.” Forcibly conducted anal examinations are usually initiated at the request of law enforcement officials, the prosecutor, or the court and conducted in the absence of informed consent or in circumstances where individuals are not capable of giving genuine informed consent or where refusal to give consent would be interpreted as self-incrimination. This may be presumed to be the case when examinations are conducted on individuals in detention, subsequent to allegations of criminalised sexual acts by the authorities. The purpose of this medico-legal statement is to provide legal experts, adjudicators, health care professionals, and policymakers, among others, with an understanding of: 1) the validity of forcibly conducted anal examinations as medical and scientific evidence of consensual anal intercourse; 2) the likely physical and psychological consequences of forcibly conducted anal examinations; and 3) whether, based on these effects, forcibly conducted anal examination constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or torture

Statement on Virginity Testing: Independent Forensic Expert Group

Virginity examinations are practiced in many countries, and often forcibly, in a number of contexts, including in detention places; on women who allege rape; on women who are accused by authorities of prostitution; and as part of public or social policies to control sexuality. In other states, the practice is illegal. The purpose of this medico-legal statement is to provide legal experts, adjudicators, healthcare professionals, and policymakers, among others, with an understanding of the physical and psychological effects of forcibly conducting virginity examinations on females and to assess whether, based on these effects, forcibly conducted virginity examinations constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or torture. This medico-legal statement also addresses the medical interpretation and relevance of such examinations and the ethical implications. This opinion considers an examination to be ‘forcibly conducted’ when it is “committed by force, or by threat of force or coercion, such as caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power, against such person incapable of giving genuine consent.”   For full details about the Independent Forensic Expert Group please visit http://www.irct.org/our-support/ medical-and-psychological-case-support/forensic-expertgroup.aspx

Methadone, Buprenorphine, Oxycodone, Fentanyl and Tramadol in Multiple Postmortem Matrices

Abstract Peripheral blood (PB) concentrations are generally preferred for postmortem toxicological interpretation, but some autopsy cases may lack blood for sampling due to decomposition or large traumas, etc. In such cases, other tissues or bodily fluids must be sampled; however, limited information exists on postmortem concentrations in matrices other than blood. Pericardial fluid (PF), muscle and vitreous humor (VH) have been suggested as alternatives to blood, but only a few studies have investigated the detection of opioids in these matrices. In this study, we aimed to investigate the detection of methadone, buprenorphine, oxycodone, fentanyl and tramadol in postmortem samples of PF, skeletal muscle and VH, in addition to PB and cardiac blood and if drug concentrations in these alternative matrices were comparable to those in PB and thereby useful for interpretation. In most of the 54 included cases, only one opioid was detected. Methadone, oxycodone, fentanyl and tramadol were detected in all of the alternative matrices in almost all cases, while buprenorphine was detected less often. For methadone, the concentrations in the alternative matrices, except in VH, were relatively similar to those in PB. Larger variations in concentrations were found for buprenorphine, oxycodone and tramadol. Quantitative analyses appeared useful for fentanyl, in all of the alternative matrices, but only four cases were included. Toxicological analyses of opioids in these alternative postmortem matrices can be useful for detection, but quantitative results must be interpreted with caution

Distribution of tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol in several different postmortem matrices

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance worldwide. A limited number of studies have investigated whether tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) can be detected in other postmortem matrices than blood and urine. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of THC and CBD in several different postmortem matrices. Concentrations in peripheral blood were compared to those in cardiac blood, pericardial fluid, psoas muscle, vastus lateralis muscle, and vitreous humor. A total of 39 postmortem forensic autopsy cases were included. THC and CBD were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We were able to detect both THC and CBD in most of the analyzed matrices. For vitreous humor, however, only approximately 50% of the cases were available for analysis, and only two were found to be positive. Median concentrations in peripheral blood were 0.0040 (0.00042–0.056) mg/L for THC and 0.0013 (0–0.023) mg/L for CBD. The concentration ratios between pericardial fluid and cardiac blood compared to peripheral blood were< 1 for both THC and CBD for the majority of the cases. For THC, a median ratio of 0.60 (0.063–7.2) and 0.65 (0.068–4.8) were found for pericardial fluid and cardiac blood, respectively, compared to peripheral blood, whereas for CBD the corresponding median ratios were 0.40 (0.010–1.9) and 0.80 (0.017–2.4). The THC concentrations in psoas muscle and vastus lateralis muscle were high compared to those in peripheral blood in several cases, and large variations in the muscles to peripheral blood concentration ratios were seen. This was also the case for CBD. Our study shows that THC and CBD can be detected in postmortem matrices other than peripheral blood, and results from other matrices might provide important information in forensic cases where peripheral blood is not available. However, vitreous humor was not suitable for detecting neither THC nor CBD