I often see the scene of the coroner's inquests in American movies. The heros like Columbo or Dirty Harry have talks with the coroner and get some clues at his office. I compared both inquests between an American movie and in real Japan. I guess that American coroners have medical licenses and, if they want, they could become clinicians, but they chose to become coroners by their own choice. It's my understanding. At this point, a question came up. Though the number of coroners isn't enough in Japan, how about in the U.S.? The population of my hometown is 500,000, but the number of coroners is one-digit at most.
If the body that is suspected to have been possibly killed by a certain third person is found in my hometown, plural policemen and a clinician get together and have a conference to investigate the cause of the death. Not a coroner but a clinician gets involved in such cases. I'm sometimes called to this meeting because of the lack of coroners. I'm not a professional in this field and always feel concerned about the decision.
The area where Columbo or Dirty Harry works is a huge city such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. What's the condition of small cities of 500,000 population in the U.S.? Are there enough coroners in rural cities? Does the government control the number of coroners?
(Vocabulary)
coroner 検死官
the coroner's office 検死局
coroner's inquest 検死審問
medical licence 医師免許
clinician 臨床医
by one's own choice 自分自身の選択によって
at most 多くても
third person 第三者
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