Uprooted and Deceived
I was reading an article on NYTimes.com that made me gasp in horror. The article is about osteobiography, which is the process of examining people's bones to discertain what happened to them in their lifetimes. No longer just for archaeologists trying to uncover our biological roots, forensics scientists are also using osteobiography as evidence to prosecute crimes in court. The article focuses on how osteobiography is now being used to understand genocide. Fascinating in its own rite, but this detail stopped me in my tracks:
In 1984, three Argentinean women who said they were relatives of missing Argentinean children showed up at Dr. Stover’s office in Berkeley. They explained that during military rule, pregnant women were kidnapped and then executed after giving birth so their babies could be given to childless military or police couples. The women pleaded with Dr. Stover to help find their missing children and grandchildren. Over the coming months, he put together a team of forensic anthropologists, pathologists, radiologists, and odontologists, then recruited and trained Argentine medical students to help identify remains.
What if you were one of these children abducted before you were even born? What if one day you found out that the people who you thought were your parents were the people who murdered your real mother? And that they raised you not out of remorse for their sins, but because of their selfishness? I can't even imagine...
The full article can be read here: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/reading-bones-to-identify-genocide-victims/?ref=global-home
The article brings up a second moral question on whether victims of genocide should be identified. Very interesting.
In 1984, three Argentinean women who said they were relatives of missing Argentinean children showed up at Dr. Stover’s office in Berkeley. They explained that during military rule, pregnant women were kidnapped and then executed after giving birth so their babies could be given to childless military or police couples. The women pleaded with Dr. Stover to help find their missing children and grandchildren. Over the coming months, he put together a team of forensic anthropologists, pathologists, radiologists, and odontologists, then recruited and trained Argentine medical students to help identify remains.
What if you were one of these children abducted before you were even born? What if one day you found out that the people who you thought were your parents were the people who murdered your real mother? And that they raised you not out of remorse for their sins, but because of their selfishness? I can't even imagine...
The full article can be read here: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/reading-bones-to-identify-genocide-victims/?ref=global-home
The article brings up a second moral question on whether victims of genocide should be identified. Very interesting.