Ethical considerations in the use of DNA as a contribution toward the determination of identification in historic cases: considerations from the Western front

Abstract

This paper gives an account of the authors' involvement in the Fromelles Project (2008–2014) and discusses the main ethical issues confronting them in their roles as scientific advisors to the project. The principal aim of this project was, where possible, to determine the identification of 250 British and Australian soldiers killed at the Battle of Fromelles (France) in July 1916, and excavated from six mass graves located on the outskirts of the present village of Fromelles in 2009. The main areas considered here are: (i) informed consent and managing expectations, (ii) openness about the potentials and limitations of the process and its context – both historical and contemporary, (iii) managing incidental findings, (iv) the ramifications of semantics, particularly the unwitting use of de-humanizing terms when seeking to identify individuals involved as components of multiple deaths, and (v) the level of proof to be applied to the identification of those dying in the recent, historic or archaeological past.