Disasters cause destruction and death accompanied by human suffering They
exceed the local capacity to cope and usually bring untold human misery and loss.
This thesis focuses on the ethics of forensic medicine in disasters. It has the
following research objectives:
1. To explore ethical issues faced by forensic doctors in disaster settings as
identified in the literature.
2. To identify ethical issues faced by forensic doctors in India during disasters.
3. To carry out ethical analysis of two important issues, from those identified
through the literature review and the in-depth interviews.
4. To develop a set of recommendations based on this analysis.
To identify the ethical issues, a comprehensive review of the academic literature
of the last 20 years was done. In addition, twenty forensic doctors exposed to
working in disasters were interviewed. Data from these interviews were coded and
analyzed using a grounded theory approach. For the ethical analysis the Universal
Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights was used.
The ethical analysis showed that indiscriminate photography and circulation of
confidential information are a breach of privacy of the dead and their families.
Resource limitation is a major obstacle in timely identification of the dead and in
their respectful treatment. Serious efforts need to be made to identify the dead in
disasters as proper identification helps families grieve and gives closure. Research
on unidentified bodies should only be allowed in exceptional situations, for
example, if the research benefits future disaster victims (e.g. research on
identification methods), or if the research has overriding public health benefits,
(e.g. during an epidemic). Oversight mechanisms should be put in place to facilitate
respectful treatment of the dead when carrying out research. The study highlights
a pressing need for establishing guidelines and providing training to forensic
personnel, thereby aiding efficient identification.
Metadata
Item Type:
Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:
November 2020
Refereed:
No
Supervisor(s):
Gordijn, Bert and Scott, Philomena Anne
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Ethics; Disasters, Forensic Medicine; Identification; Research