Determination of Age of Intrauterine Life of Foetus by Examination of Long Bones of Skeleton

Causing death to a human being is a heinous crime. Infanticide is no exception to this. More so it is easier to dispose dead foetus in the normal Indian condition, where water bodies like lake, river, rivulets and some amount of jungle are rampant. In such conditions the medicolegal experts faces a lot of challenges as police often gets a bundle of bones for investigation into death of foetuses. Estimation of intrauterine age is most important in determination of identity of the dead foetuses in day-to-day work by the medicolegal expert.

Keeping the above facts in mind 26 skeleton of still born foetuses were examined during the period September 2003 to September 2004 in the department of forensic medicine GSL Medical College Rajamundry. The skelatons were prepared from the stillborn foetuses & examined by measuring the long bones with the help of measuring calipers.

The length of long bones like humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, and fibula show a striking ratio with the age of foetus. Our experiment has devised a simple method of measuring long bones, which will be helpful in determining the age of foetuses in day-to-day work by the medicolegal expert.

This being a preliminary study, study with larger samples is necessary to throw some more light into the determination of the age of the foetus.