My Dream Job Most people dream of working with animals, or becoming a teacher, but not me, my dream job is to become a forensic Pathologist and be able to perform autopsies to find out someone just “mysteriously” died. A forensic pathologist, or as I like to say, a “Death detective”, is someone who investigates or evaluates a case of sudden, unexpected, or a suspicious death. These pathologists also examine bodies due to other specific causes of death defined by the law. Most forensic pathologists serve as a coroner, a medical examiner, or by doing autopsies. These examiners may recover critical evidence, that may be a bullet, which might help to determine the cause of death. (http://www.nij.gov/topics/forensics/evidence/pathology/pages/welcome.aspx ) Other pathologists are in private practice, and might also work as a …show more content…
The report estimated that fewer than 500 physicians nationwide were practicing forensic pathology full time, which is not nearly enough. The Blue Ribbon Panel had suggested to meet the country’s criminal or justice needs. There are 500,000 deaths a year referred to a medical examiner for preliminary investigation. The association of Medical examiners says that pathologists are not performing more than 250 to 350 autopsies a year its guidelines recommend “twice that number of forensic pathologists is needed to provide competent service and ensure.”( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/post-mortem/things-to-know/forensic-pathologists.html) Being a forensic pathologist takes patience and concentration. You have to look at every little detail on a body to find out what caused the person’s death. Forensic pathologists earn between $150,000 to $180,000 a year. “These amounts do not even meet the entry level salaries of those going into hospital pathology work.”