Abstract

ARAYA VARGAS, Jimena. Organización e identificación de víctimas de catástrofes. Med. leg. Costa Rica [online]. 2016, vol.33, n.1, pp.110-115. ISSN 2215-5287.

A disaster is a sudden event that causes great number of injuries and deaths. INTERPOL is the responsable judicial body of the subject, which published a guide that covers the organization and methodology in identifying victims, regardless of the size or origin of the disaster. Also emphasizes the importance of having a skilled team in this area permanently, so that it can provide a quick and efficient process, allowing the identificación of the bodies. However, cause the nature of these events, sometimes it’s not posible. This depends largely on the state of the bodies, whicha are affected by the conditions they are exposed as weather, storage and time between location and sample analysis.

Among the most used methods for identifying victims are the analisys of DNA, fingerprints and dental features.

On the other hand, it´s becoming more ease offered by radiological images in this process. Although most efforts are destinated to the attention of the survivors, we can not forget the importance of identifying victims in disasters, mainly by the impact both legal level and at the humanitarian level, in orden to return the bodies to their families or repatriated.

Keywords : Identifying victims; disasters, ADN.

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