Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua, Padova, Italy.
Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013 Aug;28(4):393-6. doi: 10.1017/S1049023X1300040X. Epub 2013 Apr 18.
Each mass disaster has its own characteristics and will involve a different approach, so the safeguarding and collection of forensic evidence have to be considered as part of the field response procedure. DNA typing has played a more prominent role in the identification of human remains, and particularly so for highly decomposed and fragmented remains. Although the ultimate goal is to obtain the identification, the specific context of each application of human identity testing has its specific problems, ranging from technical approach, through statistical interpretation, to ethical issues. The preparedness plan of the forensic genetics laboratory needs to include policies for family notification, long-term sample storage, and data archiving. For this reason, DNA sample collection and a strategy for DNA-based victim identification needs to be part of the preparedness plan. In this paper, the authors seek to define three of these ethical aspects: (1) the humanitarian importance of identification; (2) resource allocation in the victims' DNA identification; and (3) the secondary use for research of the samples initially collected for identification purposes. DNA analysis for the purpose of identifying victims of mass disasters has complex implications that demand much more rigorous examination than they have received until now.
每一次大规模灾难都有其自身特点，因此需要采取不同的方法，所以法医证据的保护和收集必须被视为现场应对程序的一部分。DNA 分型在鉴定人类遗骸方面发挥了更突出的作用，特别是对于高度分解和碎片化的遗骸。尽管最终目标是确定身份，但人类身份检测的每种应用的具体情况都有其特定的问题，从技术方法、统计解释到伦理问题。法医遗传学实验室的准备计划需要包括家庭通知政策、长期样本存储和数据归档。出于这个原因，需要将 DNA 样本采集和基于 DNA 的受害者识别策略作为准备计划的一部分。在本文中，作者试图定义其中三个伦理方面：（1）识别的人道主义重要性；（2）受害者 DNA 识别中的资源分配；（3）最初为识别目的而收集的样本用于研究的二次使用。出于识别大规模灾难受害者的目的进行的 DNA 分析具有复杂的影响，需要比迄今为止更严格的审查。
