DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents
Robert Shaler
There were several family groups that formed after the 9/11 attacks. The largest, Give Your Voice, was started by a single family; the firefighters had a large family group; there was a family group in Boston and one on Staten Island. We made it a point to present the DNA story to these groups, and to answer their questions when they arose.
The relationship between the laboratory and the victims’ families can be greatly affected by the duration of the identification effort. Lengthy mass fatality incident responses require greater interaction between the laboratory and the families. Families will look to the laboratory to provide regular updates and explain why the process may seem as if it is taking so long. In DNA identification efforts that last an appreciable time, as was the case after the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks, families may organize to more effectively convey their needs to policymakers and other decisionmakers.
When a single business entity is involved in a mass fatality incident (e.g., an airline company in the case of an airline disaster), the company usually establishes a family assistance center, which serves as a bridge between the ME and the victims’ families. Where there is no single corporate affiliation, however, as in the case of the WTC attacks, the government may establish an entity equivalent to a family assistance center to serve as an intermediary. Family assistance centers may coordinate the collection of victim and kinship information and reference samples. In cases involving victims from foreign countries, the laboratory may have to work directly with foreign consulates.
Family assistance centers also play a role in communicating the status of the identification effort to the families. Confusion can be reduced when a family assistance representative is brought directly into the ME’s or laboratory’s organizational structure and receives the same briefings as the laboratory staff, as well as additional tutorials on how DNA testing works. The family assistance representative can then coordinate with other family assistance personnel to better aid the families, thus allowing the laboratory to focus on analyses and identification. This type of collaboration between the family assistance center and the laboratory can improve and expedite the identification process and is most feasible when the family assistance center is established by an official agency rather than an ad hoc emergency group. Exhibit 13 shows the relationships between the laboratory and the victims’ families.
