Vaswani Vina, Caenazzo Luciana, Congram Derek
Department of Forensic Medicine and Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya (deemed to be University) University Road, Deralakatte, Mangalore, India.
Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, Legal Medicine Section, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Forensic Sci Res. 2023 Dec 20;9(1):owad048. doi: 10.1093/fsr/owad048. eCollection 2024 Mar.
In October 2022, the Centre for Ethics of Yenepoya University hosted a national workshop entitled: "Respect for human dignity of the unidentified dead from mass disasters and other violence: strategies for the ethical management of biological samples and personal data". The aim was to explore and share experience and ethical considerations regarding the management and identification of human remains in the event of disasters, with the purpose to arrive at a general consensus about what constitutes the ethical foundation of the management of unidentified human remains in forensic practice and, in particular, contextualizing this in India. The main ethical consideration that emerged was tracing the missing and identifying the dead are crucial to maintaining or restoring basic human rights and responsible relief activities. Identification is not only an organizational and scientific achievement but, regardless of circumstances, also necessarily and always an activity with significant political, epistemic, and philosophical relevance and consequence. In India, it could be important to consider new legal provisions for the management of human samples so that this would provide a starting point for the treatment of human remains managed for forensic purposes with uniformity in the country. Another important step in which governments should take part regards the involvement and education of the general public to develop their interest in this important goal. In the field of forensic anthropology, artificial intelligence can support, through the use of algorithms, the decision-making process that leads to the identification of the victim or its remains. Furthermore, they can be used to extract new knowledge from huge databases and shorten identification through computer automation of data binding activities. Applying artificial intelligence tools in forensic sciences to collect new information from massive datasets to enhance knowledge, and reduce human subjectivity and errors, provides a greater scientific basis that could improve the strength of the evidence and support the admissibility of expert evidence. In light of the general lack of national/international guidance about ethical oversight for identification and care of human remains, the fact that regulations are frequently not adequate to govern ethical aspects, we hope that an internationally recognized body should develop such guidance in collaboration with relevant organizations.
2022年10月，叶内波亚大学伦理中心举办了一场全国性研讨会，主题为：“尊重大规模灾难及其他暴力事件中身份不明死者的人类尊严：生物样本和个人数据伦理管理策略”。其目的是探讨并分享灾难事件中人类遗体管理与身份识别方面的经验及伦理考量，以期就法医实践中身份不明人类遗体管理的伦理基础达成普遍共识，尤其是结合印度国情进行探讨。出现的主要伦理考量是，追踪失踪人员和识别死者对于维护或恢复基本人权及负责任的救援活动至关重要。身份识别不仅是一项组织和科学成就，而且无论在何种情况下，必然始终是一项具有重大政治、认知和哲学意义及影响的活动。在印度，考虑制定关于人类样本管理的新法律规定可能很重要，这样可为该国法医目的管理的人类遗体处理提供统一的起点。政府应参与的另一个重要步骤是让公众参与并开展教育，以培养他们对这一重要目标的兴趣。在法医人类学领域，人工智能可以通过算法支持导致识别受害者或其遗体的决策过程。此外，它们可用于从庞大数据库中提取新知识，并通过数据绑定活动的计算机自动化缩短身份识别时间。将人工智能工具应用于法医学，从海量数据集中收集新信息以增强知识，并减少人为主观性和错误，可提供更坚实的科学依据，从而提高证据的力度并支持专家证据的可采性。鉴于普遍缺乏关于人类遗体识别和护理伦理监督的国家/国际指导，且相关法规往往不足以管理伦理方面的问题，我们希望一个国际认可的机构应与相关组织合作制定此类指导。
