Citation

Rudolf E. Int. J. Legal Med. 2014; 129(6): 1271-1273.

Affiliation

Wiesenstr 20, 4800, Attnang-Puchheim, Austria, office@ernst-rudolf.at.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00414-014-1043-8

PMID

25047694

Abstract

We would like to thank Focardi et al. for dealing with a certain aspect of forensic age estimation. Please allow us to add a few remarks on that topic.

An ‘ethical’ debate accompanies the age question especially in asylum-related proceedings since the intense discussions in the 1990s in European countries like Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland (e.g. [1–4]). The limitations of the Greulich-Pyle atlas 1959 [5], clinical staging of ‘wisdom tooth’-eruption and biometric data next to missing reference studies were mentioned as well as standards concerning legal age dispute procedures demanded. The critique initiated a process leading to specific legal and scientific backgrounds. Already in 1997, EU regulations suggested the use of medical professional evidence for asylum-related age differentiation justifying furthermore radiological imaging within medico-legal procedures [6, 7], both positions being reiterated into the ‘Common European Asylum System’....

Language: en