You can test for a person's age?

[Bagor]

Stumbled across this bit of news.

A judge in Turkey has ruled that a man accused of murdering two County Down women will be required to have a bone marrow test to find out how old he is. Recep Cetin, who is suspected of killing Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, faced a hearing on Thursday.
He claims he is 17, but lawyers representing the families of the two women believe he is older.
If he is over 18, he will be tried in an adult rather than juvenile court

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16358313

I've googled and can find nothing on this test. I'm assuming because the argument is between 17 and 18 that it has some form of accuracy (days/months?).

Anyone heard of it?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Don't they just count the rings in your bones? You know, just like trees.

[CaptainCrunch]

Beat me too it, I was going to suggest sawing his leg off and counting the ring.

[HalifaxDrunk]

Little known fact - when you are born the doctor puts a copy of your birth certificate inside your hip bone.

[CaptainCrunch]

Mikey get control of your PC there HD?

[Nehkara]

Well there is such a thing as a test for bone age... perhaps that is what they mean.

[Machiavelli]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Well there is such a thing as a test for bone age... perhaps that is what they mean.

That's done by X-ray, usually of the wrist, but is pretty much irrelevant as far as telling chronological age.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

DNA testing is accurate within 20 years.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

DNA testing is accurate within 20 years.

So by that logic if you were born in 1991 or 2011 the test couldn't tell?

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

So by that logic if you were born in 1991 or 2011 the test couldn't tell?

Sure, DNA isn't the best age determiner...

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

Sure, DNA isn't the best age determiner...

But it's great at figuring out other things.


/Maury reference.

[GirlySports]

just ask him what animal he is in the Chinese Horoscope, he'll give it away.

[HalifaxDrunk]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

So by that logic if you were born in 1991 or 2011 the test couldn't tell?

No, because that would be 21 years. 1991 - 2010, then it couldn't tell.

[NuclearFart]

You can speculate on adult vs. adolescent based on a relatively predictable pattern of marrow changes that occur early in life. We are all born with a much larger proportion of "red" marrow capable of creating blood cells, compared with the adult life "yellow marrow" which is essentially blobs of fat. Within our bones, the ratio and distribution of red:yellow marrow changes with age, most dramatically from childhood -> adolescence -> young adult. This progression of findings is well seen on a simple MRI of the long bones.

The problem is that these are ball park expectations, and can be easily altered by a ton of factors like anemia, smoking, high altitude, stress. It's questionable if this would hold up in court on such a borderline case if it's the only determining factor for a huge sentence.