Like numerous other emergent and experimental technologies, there exist significant positive and powerful negative aspects. This is the case for virtopsy, whose positive aspects have been well acknowledged including enabling pathologists to detect bullet paths, hidden fractures and internal bleeding, which may be difficult to be detected in the conventional autopsy. MRI scans and CT scans outline the emboli, which are the air bubbles that get into the body via the wound and hinder or obstruct blood vessels. Scholars have noted that such evidence may escape as soon as pathologists cut open the organs or veins, thereby necessitating underwater autopsies, in order to see the air escaping (Oliver et al, 1999). Virtopsy scans ease the detection of inhaled or aspirated water, as well as blood in the lungs, which inform the pathologist that the individual was alive when he or she sustained the injuries or entered the water. On …show more content…
However, there are a number of restrictions or limitations in the application of virtopsy in forensic investigations. First, the technique is insufficient in carrying out a diagnosis of natural causes of death, heart failure, poisonings, infections, and strokes (Christe et al, 2010). Moreover, scholars have underlined the necessity of developing special techniques that allow computers to accurately interpret the scans, in cases where the body is much colder. It is worth noting that MRI machines function through translating the signature vibrations produced by the nuclei pertaining to the varying forms of atoms. Such nuclear vibrations slow down at cooler temperature, thereby limiting the application of such machine (Bixby, 2010). Moreover, it is well acknowledged that the images generated or produced in the course of CT