Argentinean Society of Legal Odontology and Forensic Odontologist Association of South America

Klaus Rötzscher (ed.)Forensic and Legal Dentistry201410.1007/978-3-319-01330-5_12

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

12. Argentinean Society of Legal Odontology and Forensic Odontologist Association of South America

Oscar Heit 
(1)

Faculty of Science and Technology, University Autonomous of Entre Ríos, Entre Ríos, Argentina
 
 
Oscar HeitProf. Dr.
Abstract
The Argentinian Society of Legal Odontology (SADOL) was founded in 1977 in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Its first president was a physician, Oscar Sanchez, and his secretary was an odontologist, Héctor Ceppi.

12.1 Argentinean Society of Legal Odontology and Forensic Odontologist Association of South America

The Argentinian Society of Legal Odontology (SADOL) was founded in 1977 in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Its first president was a physician, Oscar Sanchez, and his secretary was an odontologist, Héctor Ceppi.
Because of the political situation in Argentina at that time, SADOL stopped developing. In 1995, however, the Odontologist School of Tucuman’s State University presented the first specialist course approved by The National Commission of the Evaluation and Certification Universities, awarding a Legal Expert Odontologist degree, the first in South America. Rosario’s Odontology State University followed. In 2001, the Health State Ministry recognized legal odontology as a specialty and published this in the Official Bulletin of November 2001. Ceppi, therefore, started the legacy and today SADOL is a successful society with members all around Argentina. SADOL has had annual meetings since 2005. The sixth meeting was in Buenos Aires in May 2010, at which time, we also paid tribute to Dr. Elida N. Briñón, a pioneer of legal odontology in Argentina. She has been an expert in the courts of Buenos Aires for many years and has published two books: the first in 1983, entitled Legal Odontology and Forensic Practice, and the second in 2006, Injuries and Iatrogenic Injuries in Legal Odontology. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay were represented at the Buenos Aires 2010 meeting.
The Managerial Commission of SADOL for 2009–2011 was constituted at the May 2009 meeting. The members are Carlos Marcelo Gonzalez (President), Roberto Rivarola (Vice-President), Judith Prado Pagniez (Secretary), Oscar Heit (Treasurer), and Marcelo Luzi (Minutes Secretary and Interinstitutional Relationships).
The Forensic Odontologists Association of South America (AOFS) was recently created and consists of Carlos Marcelo Gonzalez (Argentina; President), Rosario Rovira Gómez (Bolivia; Secretary), Celia Mármol (Paraguay; Treasurer), Ana María Carlos Erazo (Perú; First Vocal), Rhonan Ferreira da Silva (Brazil; Second Vocal), Alicia Picapedra (Uruguay; First Accounting Manager), and Manuel Maurelia (Chile; Second Accounting Manager). AOFS will have its first meeting during the Eighth International Congress of Odontologists of Paraguay, 9–11 September 2010, in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay’s Republic. The main aim of this meeting will be the creation of a disaster victim identification team for South America.
The legal odontology field in Argentina needs further refinement and research progress. The Argentine judicial system, divided into provinces, has, so far, no formal incorporation of expert dentists in medico-legal institutes or medical legal departments.
Since 1995, three dental faculties have postgraduate programs in legal odontology and there is a continuous effort to increase the number of universities able to train additional specialists. Associations such as the Argentinean Society of Legal Odontology contribute to the training of odontolegal experts, standardization of knowledge, and developing best-practices manuals.

12.2 Patient’s Rights in Argentina

In Argentina, the Patient’s Rights Law in relation to professional health institutions was approved in 2009. Law No. 26,529 governs the exercise of patient’s rights: autonomy, information, and clinical documentation (medical history and informed consent). With regard to the obligation to make medical records available to patients, Law No. 26,529 reads: Article 12. – Definition and scope. For the purposes of this law, the medical history is understood to be the complete chronologic record of actions taken by health professionals and allied personnel pertaining to the patient.
The patient has the rights, according to Law No. 26,529: Art. 2 – Patient Rights. The following rights are essential in the relationship between the patient and health professionals or health insurance agents, and any intermediaries:

(a)

Assistance. Patients, including children and adolescents, have the right to be assisted by health professionals without prejudice and discrimination regarding their ideology; religious, political, or socio-economic status; race; sex; sexual orientation; or any other condition. The acting health professional may only discharge the duty of care when the patient’s care has been actually transferred to another qualified professional.
 
(b)

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Nov 26, 2015 | Posted by in General Dentistry | Comments Off on Argentinean Society of Legal Odontology and Forensic Odontologist Association of South America

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