DNA Technology May Not Provide Panacea for Identification of the Dead in US Gulf

One week after Hurricane Katrina smashed the gulf coast area of the US, recovery efforts continue to find the living survivors. It's likely that at some point this week workers will start concentrating on recovering what official guess will be a staggering 10,000 dead.

CNN reports this morning that there are plans being made to purchase land for burial of the victims and adds that officials say that there are no plans for performing autopsies on victims whose deaths are not regarded as suspicious.

So, many of the victims may end up nameless due to the sheer numbers, adding to the devastating emotional impact of this disaster. Imagine families that may never know exactly the fate of a grandmother, father, mother, brother, sister, or a child.

Apparently, DNA forensics, the use of molecular biology techniques to positively identify human remains, may not solve the riddles from human remains waterlogged from days under water, or exposure to 90-degree temperatures for days, if they are indeed applied.

Amber Hunt of the Detroit Free Press cited Werner Spitz, a Detroit-area medical examiner with experience in human identification after a catastrophe, who said that some of the bodies may never be identified.

The problem is that you have to have a starting point, a known factor, an identity. That may not help the homeless people who died and were not reported missing or those whose homes, and DNA identity respository clues such as toothbrushes, combs, or razors, are long gone in the flood waters.

Rob Deaton, an investigator with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma City, Okla., told John Fuquay of the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., on Sunday that DNA may be the only viable method of identification because of the length of time the bodies have been decomposed.

"The most severe decomposition begins after three days. After that, you almost have to go to DNA. After there's bloating, it's almost impossible to make a visual ID," he said in an article published Monday.

All of this may lead to a call for a national DNA identity registry. Already, England and Wales collect and permanently retain DNA from all people that are arrested for any “recordable offense.”

The Duke University Law and Technology Review in 2003 published an article that concludes that a DNA card scheme complying with the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution “is not beyond the realm of imagination.”

The DNA forensics market is estimated as a $120 million market by Applied Biosystems, the DNA sequencing leader who is moving to expand its operations in this market.

Princeton, NJ-based Orchid Cellmark, regarded as a leading provider of identity DNA testing services for human identity, in July reported revenues of $16 million for the quarter ending June 30 and a net loss of $1.8 million and lowered its forecasts for the remainder of the year as a result of “the slower than anticipated release of new National Institutes of Justice-funded bids for outsourced forensic DNA testing, as contract awards from states and other agencies have been delayed by up to six months from our original projections.”

Tags -- [DNA technology, forensics, human identification, registry, DNA forensics market]