Age estimation for forensic purposes in Italy: ethical issues

Age assessment in children and young adults is a relevant medicolegal issue due to the gradual increase of persons devoid of proper identification documents in Europe-an countries. Because of the illegal immigration and growing crime rates and the extensive experience of forensic experts in the last among children and adolescents, age estimation for forensic purposes is often required. The scientific research decades focused on the use of radiographicmethods addressed to evaluate the degree of skeletal or dental development as the most accurate parameters to estimate the chronological age of children and adolescents. This paper analyzes the ethical issues related to age estimation procedures based on radio-graphic methods, showing how the ethical principles of be-neficence, nonmalevolence, justice, and autonomy may be guaranteed during the execution of the age assessment in forensic practice. The procedure might be conducted in accor-dance with international guidelines and protocols, though they need a higher homogenization and standardization. A strong collaboration between various scientific societies of profes-sionals (forensic odontologists, forensic pathologists, forensic anthropologist, radiologists, pediatricians, and psychologists), who have been involved in age estimation for years, is needed to reach this goal.