ABSTRACT
I n the trauma surrounding mass disasters, the needto identity victims accurately and as soon as pos-sible is critical. DNA identification testing is increasingly used to identify human bodies and remains where the deceased cannot be identified by traditional means. This form of testing compares DNA taken from the body of the deceased with DNA taken from their personal items (e.g. hairbrush, toothbrush etc.) or from close biological relatives.1 DNA identification testing was used to identify the victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, and of the victims of the Tsunami that hit Asia on December 26, 2004. Shortly after the 9/11 attack, police investigators asked the victims' families for personal items belonging to the missing, and for DNA samples from family members themselves.2 The New York medical examiner's office coordinated the DNA identification testing program; however, some of the identification work was contracted out to private laboratories.3 New York has ended, for now, its attempts to identify the remains of more than half of the 2,749 victims of 9/11. Having exhausted DNA technology as it currently exists, New York will preserve and store the unidentified remains.4 The state has attempted to preserve DNA samples of every single remain that came through their testing laboratories.5 For the Tsunami, many countries are contributing to the identification effort, including China, Sweden, and Finland.6 Even more recent events such as the July 7th London bombings, and Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans on August 28th, also necessitated large-scale identification efforts.
