ABSTRACT
The identification of a body that has been subjected to disfiguring or disruptive trauma may at first appear to be a daunting task. A single-occupancy air crash may yield thousands of tiny body parts, which may lead to problems related to body recovery, storage, packaging and identification. The use of standardized body identification paperwork may be rendered useless. The processes involved may stretch the skills of the investigators to the very limits of their ability and at the same time place significant pressure upon their personal and
work environments due to the necessity to try and identify the deceased, often within unrealistic time limits, or place psychological stress upon themselves and their families in dealing with the task and sights before them. Just because police officers are trained exhibits officers and have been to autopsies before does not mean that they will cope with working in a temporary mortuary set up to deal with the burned and disrupted remains of the aftermath of a school bus accident. This scenario applies equally to the pathologist as it does to any member of an identification team. Thus, all team members, no matter who they are, must have appropriate before and after medical and psychological support for the sights, sounds, and smells that they may endure, as well as the physical and environmental strains placed upon them while undertaking identification work. That is, assuming that the remains can be recovered in the first place which, in this age of global terrorism and the threat of chemical, biological, or radiological attack, may not be possible. This, then, raises the moral question as to how to deal with such an event and whether the welfare of the body recovery and identification teams outweighs the necessity to recover and identify the dead.
