Infant abductions in health care: Critical incident response

Summary Critical Incident Management provides a coordinated response in which all of the players have both an understanding of their role and its coordination with the overall plan. Continuing operations of the hospital must continue but care and concern needs to be directed to the family which is suffering. The goal of our response is the safe return of the newborn. The Clark Center     

Transforming Environmental Governance in Northern Ireland. Part One: The Process of Policy Renewal

As Northern Ireland emerges from decades of conflict, the pressuresfor economic regeneration mean that without fundamental reformsto the region’s system of environmental governance, itslong-awaited sustainable development strategy will be littlemore than a chimera. There is some cause for optimism that theneed for major administrative reform is now understood. Thescale and background of the underlying environmental policymalaise are examined. Only in the last four years, spurred bya combination of the threat of fines before the European Courtof Justice and of the restoration of devolution, has there beena significant effort of environmental law reform, which hasled to a clearing Northern Ireland’s notorious EU legislativebacklog. Real reform in governance, however, will be impossiblewithout a credible champion, and a particular responsibilityfor leadership in policy on the environment and sustainabledevelopment will rest on Northern Ireland’s Departmentof the Environment. Five critical challenges are identifiedif the Department is to be effective in this respect.     

Incestuous paternity detected by STR-typing of chorionic villi isolated from archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded abortion material using laser microdissection

Microscopic examination of a blood clot expelled by a physically and mentally disabled woman taken to the emergency room because of genital bleeding revealed the presence of chorionic villi encircled by decidua, hemorrhage, and necrosis. In order to identify the father of the product of conception, sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded abortion material were subjected to laser microdissection: DNA extraction from chorionic villi selectively isolated from the surrounding tissues allowed successful STR-typing of fetal cells, which was otherwise prevented by excess maternal DNA. The large number of homozygous genotypes in the fetal profile suggested incestuous paternity. Analysis of reference DNA samples from male relatives excluded the woman's father, paternal grandfather, and maternal grandfather, whereas the obligate paternal alleles of the fetus were constantly present in the genotypes of the woman's brother, clearly demonstrating brother-sister incest (probability of paternity > 99.99999%).     

Frequencies of morphological characteristics in two contemporary forensic collections: implications for identification

Positive identification relies on comparison of antemortem and postmortem data. Some identifications are based on morphological features such as fracture, pathological condition, and surgical hardware, despite little literature indicating the frequencies of such traits. This study examines whether such features are sufficiently rare as to be deemed individualizing. Data were collected on two modern North American skeletal collections (N=482 individuals). Presence/absence of features was scored by skeletal element and side. Results indicate that frequencies vary by geographic region (higher frequency of fractures and pathological conditions in New Mexico while individuals in Tennessee were more likely to have surgical interventions), many features such as fractures are remarkably common and that even suites of traits may not be individualizing. Caution is warranted when using written data rather than radiographic comparisons as the primary source of identification. The implications of these findings to missing person databases are also discussed.