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“Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing”
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
On July 14, 2017, the Grendell Tower located in North Kensington, United Kingdom, experienced a dreadful fire which resulted in dozens of casualties. Recently, the death toll is said to be 80 people, however, only 58 victims have been formally identified. Many families who lost loved ones, have already been waiting for weeks to hear about the bodies that have been identified. Sadly, our current technology will not make this process any faster. DNA technology enables a reliable identification of victims. However, the downside to this process is that it may take months or even years to be certain to identify the bodies. Lucy Easthope, the author, discusses other tragedies that have also left death tolls. Reflecting back on 9/11, she highlights the fact that victims from this terror attack are still being identified to this day. For instance, she states “Earlier this month, it was announced that the 1,641st victim of the attack on Twin Towers of the World Trade Center has been identified by the lastest “sensitive DNA technologies.” This proves that even after 16 years, bodies are still being identified. Shortly after the 9/11 tragedy, many families “opted in” to be regularly updated on the identification process. However, a majority of these families were oblivious to the fact that they were opting in to a process with no clear endpoint. In the meantime, science is continually developing, as scientists try to uncover new methods for identification, that will give them the information they are seeking but at a faster rate. So far, four billion dollars has been put into this identification process, by using technology, but as of now, scientists have been failing. Similarly, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, just a few years ago, 47 people died due to a train that derailed and ignited in its town centre. Easthope discusses how the forensic challenges were comparable to both Grenfell and 9/11 but that “the process had a defined endpoint.” Because the death toll was less, it was easier to obtain DNA at the scene and to identify the bodies. As of today, countless families are living, still without confirmation of deaths of their loved ones.
This article is extremely important because of the fact that tragedies similar to these occur almost every day. Many of these attacks results in deaths, in which individuals need to be identified. With new technology, scientists will be able to identify bodies at a faster rate. It is important to invest more money into this process because of how common these disasters are. Even the smallest tragedies deserve equal attention, and by relying on exact DNA science to identify bodies, may just resolve many years of uncertainty. With scientists working each day to develop new ideas, hopefully new technology will soon be invented, with the ability to identify victims at a faster rate.
Throughout this article, the author highlights significant facts, making the article interesting to read. This article was well written and organized into logical sequence. She starts off by discussing the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower and the statistics that came with it. Easthope also includes other disasters, similar to Grenfell, such as the train incident in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, or the Twin Towers that were destroyed on 9/11. Although the author discusses other incidents, she does not fully explain what happened to cause the Grenfell fire, or the outcome it left on the city. In addition, she fails to mention the date of the fire, which may result in further research for the readers. Overall, this article was very well written, however to fix these small problems, the author should have included more information about the fire, and less about other tragedies.
11 comments:
Isabella Hayley Berry
Forensics
September 19, 2017
Current Event Comment
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
Isabella did an excellent job with reviewing the article “Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing” by Lucy Easthope. I thought that she did a great job in the beginning of the review when she incorporated the different events the author talked about. She did a great job summarizing the events that happened and why the author included the events into the article. I also thought she did a great job stating the connection between life today and that many families suffer from not being able to identify the body of their loved one. I also thought that the pieces of advice she said the author could’ve done better on was great because while reading her review and the article I have the same opinion and was interested in getting a conclusion on the Grendell Tower fire. The review could have been better if she gave more information on the connection between the article and the real world. She could have put a recent event that happened in which having better technology for DNA would have been helpful. She could have also looked into the Grendell Tower fire maybe and incorporated a few facts that she learned not just from the article but from further research. Overall, I thought that Isabella did a great job reviewing the article and it really taught me that not everything is quick like it looks like on TV, that DNA testing takes longer than a couple of days.
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017.
Isabella did a very nice job with her current event review on the article “Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing” by Lucy Easthope. I decided to review her report as I personally remember the day the fire in England happened as I was watching the news at the time. There are many good techniques she uses throughout the report. One example is how she explains the toll the body identification process takes on the families of the victims. Her focus on this factor of the original report is important as it shows exactly what the families of victims must go through to find peace. Another aspect of Isabella’s writing that was done rather well was when she explained the importance of investing money into more efficient ways to identify bodies. She explained how countless are impacted by disasters every year and that they deserve attention and support during difficult times. Lastly, I appreciated how Isabella discussed the other disasters mentioned in Lucy Easthope report and how they too affected countless lives. This shows readers how necessary more advanced technology is to the world.
Overall, Isabella’s report was extremely interesting and informative, however there are some details that she could tweak and add to make the current event report even that much better. I recommend that she explains what, exactly, the fund money is going to and how raising money will help researchers create proper equipment. It would have been beneficial for her to go into some detail about what the researchers are working towards and how they intend to improve some of their body identifying technology. Also, she could have discussed why the modern technology is not up to standard and the reasons behind it taking so long to identify victims.
Isabella’s report was very informative and I learned extensively about why advancing the technology at hand is an extremely crucial step in Forensic Science. Before reading the report, I had little knowledge about how long it takes for the families of victims to receive identifying confirmations. Countless people across the world are affected by tragedies day after day, and after reading Isabella’s report, I see now that these families and loved ones deserve to receive closure as soon as possible.
Catherine Faville
Forensics
D Even
Today i read my fellow classmates analysis on the article “Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing written by Lucy Easthope. Isabella did a really good job of summarizing the article and it's important pieces, she discussed that many families have yet to be told the identities of fallen loved ones in a dreadful fire. She talks about how the DNA process takes a long time to go through, months to years. 9/11 is a example, people to this day are still getting identified, sixteen years later. Isabella also did a fantastic job of describing why this is a problem in everyday life, she really made it emotionally and easy to connect to. It was an emotional article and a interesting topic to learn about.
However, Isabella could have done a better job explaining why this form of DNA identification is such a long process, she could have brought outside sources in explaining the issue so that the reader could get a better insight on the problem at hand. She also could have brought up other events that have had these identity problems, not just 9/11. In addition it would have been nice to hear a contrasting view, not just a good review, if she critique the article a little more, it would have made it a lot more interesting and educational to read.
By reading this article, it gave me a knew knowledge on the importance of updating this old technique of identification. Families who have face tragedies in their life are left unknowing if their family member is alive or not. By updating this, it would enable families to get some type of closure in the events of these cases. It was also very insightful as to the forensic world, letting me understand the difficulties in this profession that people have to endure in order to get the results needed for situations such as these.
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
Isabella, you did a great job at explaining how many families have yet to be told the identities of fallen loved ones in a dreadful fire. You also supplied he reader with very informative details and specific statistics. Lastly, I felt that you did a great job at explaining why it is relevant in modern society, 9/11 as an example, people to this day are still getting identified, sixteen years later.
I believe your review could have been significantly better if your writing flowed better. It was slightly choppy and it felt like you were just listing facts. However, that being said, it allowed me to remember and understand your review more clearly. Also, I would have like to see more quotes from the author. It validates your points and with ethos, it makes your review more credible.
I was very surprise to hear that recently, the death toll is said to be 80 people, however, only 58 victims have been formally identified.
From reading Isabella’s summary regarding The Guardian's, Lucy Easthope’s, “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll”. The main message that I took away from both Isabella and the author, Lucy Easthope, was that the process to identify bodies in a natural disaster- such as the Grendel Tower in the United Kingdom- is problematic one because the process itself takes too long. Three major things that I liked very much from Isabella’s account was that one it was very impressive how Isabella introduced, explained, and most importantly cited her evidence. I like the way she proved her point which was that families are being “opted in” (Easthope) with having to wait for result to confirm or to deny if their loved ones have died in a tragic accident. I thought this was a very great point because the process itself that families have to wait a long time to confirm or deny if loved ones have been involved in a tragedy is extremely unfair. I also liked how Isabella introduced the author’s perspective on the issue because he fact that families have to wait several months up to years to find out if a family member was caught up in being in a tragedy based upon relying on “sensitive DNA technology” (Easthope) is a problematic way to determining who lived and who died in an unforeseen horrific accident. I say this because while technology today is a great asset in our lives, it can sometimes become unreliable in events like these because if so many people die in one specific tragedy- like the Mexico City Earthquake or like the fire disaster that occurred in this tower located in England- than the process to identify the person with aiding technology becomes a lot more difficult. A third major stance that really enticed me from reading Isabella’s blog post was her enticement to providing evidence that the process to using technology in identifying bodies highlights its ineffectiveness to provide families answers like what occurred on September 11th 2001. Easthope highlights its unreliability by expressing that when 9/11 occurred “the process had reached an end point” (Easthope) as stated by Isabella, so many people died when the Two Towers were destroyed, almost 3,000 thousand lives were lost. While some have been identified and though the event occurred 16 years ago- several families still have unconfirmed information if their loved ones died in the worst terrorist attack in history.
I believe there were two major areas where I think Isabella could have improved her review. One area where she could have focused a little more on was the events and the tragedy that occurred in England. I believe highlighting Easthopes stance regarding that while 56 bodies were recovered, that the intelligence community estimates the total death count to be “at least 80” (Easthope) victims, which would have also been an effective evidential stance because over 20 people who died in this accident were not able to be identified. I believe by using this, she could have centered her main theme on ineffective technology. Another area where I think Isabella could have improved was expanding her focus on Easthope’s perspective defines the unreliable effectiveness to rely and to let “DNA technologies to infer with the production of a timely final death toll” (Easthope). I believe this evidence illuminates and exposes the irony that by relying on DNA technology to solve tragic crimes, Easthope had a very effective point to proving Isabella's point that by us relying on DNA technology, we are relying on a process that seems to be flawed.
The most compelling impression that I got from reading Isabela's review on the ineffectiveness to rely on DNA technology to solve natural disasters for humans was that our technology system to solve major events like the disasters that occurred in the Grenfell fire in the United Kingdom. The major reason why I chose to comment on this review was because I for one am a big fan of the hard work that is done by the people who work for “the Guardian” website as well as the thought that family’s being robbed by not having answers to tradedgy’s is a very wrong one. I believe that from reading her review and the article that is provided by both Easthopes’ work and Isabella's, the event makes me both more aware, yet it also makes me question if us using technology in natural disasters is a good way to determine who lives and who dies in a disaster which is all based on technology.
Justin McCarthy
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics Science D Even
Current Event Comment 2: Reviewing Isabella’s Article
Due September 25th 2017
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims
Martha Thomas
9/21/2017
Review of Current Events: “Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing”
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
Overall Isabella’s current events report was well written and interesting. She especially did a great job explaining the importance of DNA testing technology by explaining that this technology is necessary for mourning families to gain closure if they had a love one who died in a catastrophe. Isabella thoughtfully covered all three disasters in her report, really capturing the main ideas in the original article. Isabella’s criticism of the original article, that the author should have used more specific details about the catastrophe, showed that Isabella had read carefully.
Isabella’s report would have benefited from a few quotes from the original article. Her statistics and dates gave her writing credibility but I still think more quotes would have made for a better report. Isabella’s writing also would have been better if she had talked more deeply about the new technology and how it operates instead of just its implications.
This article, and Isabella’s report made me think about Forensics more broadly. I now connect forensics with larger scale catastrophes as well as smaller crimes. Even though many tragedies that forensic scientists deal with are horrific, the work they do in order to provide mourning families closure is inspiring.
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
Isabella did an excellent job on her review of Lucy Easthope’s article, “Families deserve a final Grenfell death toll. We mustn’t be slaves to DNA testing.” Throughout her report, she presents many important and informational aspects of DNA technology, as well as the forensic challenges which come with DNA technology. One example is how she explains how the process of identifying the bodies is long and difficult, and such a process can be hard on families of victims. Having explained this information which was presented in Easthope’s article, we can begin to understand the strenuous process families must endure as they wait to find out if their loved one was among the victims who passed. Another example was how Isabella discussed the importance of the process to improve DNA technology so they will be able to have the ability to identify the victims quicker. Isabella also did a good job by connecting the issues with DNA technology to present day.
Isabella’s review was overall very informational and interesting to read, however, there were a few things which could have been revised or added in writing this review. I thought that she could have included more information, or examples of the type of new technology scientists could use to be able to identify bodies quicker. Another recommendation for her review of Easthope’s article would be to provide more information and detail regarding investing money into the process. Such information may have included discussing who would invest the money as well as where or who it would go to, in order to improve DNA science and decrease the number of forensic challenges, increasing the rate of body identification.
Isabella was very detailed in reviewing Lucy Easthope’s article, as I was not aware of how many families continue to have no information regarding whether or not their loved ones were among the dead. This being due to the long and extensive DNA process, and the forensic challenges that come with it. I liked how she included information from three different incidents, while also including statistical reports of bodies who had been identified, and tying it to the fact that families are not able to be at ease, not having any confirmation of their loved one’s death.
Easthope, Lucy. “Families Deserve a Final Grenfell Death Toll. We Mustn't Be Slaves to DNA
Testing | Lucy Easthope.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/families-deserve-final-grenfell-tower-fire-death-toll-slaves-dna-testing-identify-victims#img-1.
I read Isabella’s review of the article about how slow DNA testing of the Grenfell fire victims is. One thing that the author did well in their review is she explained why the process of DNA testing in huge disasters like this takes so long. She also included examples outside the subject of Grenfell to give perspective. Finally the author also included quotes which made the review a good one.
Although Isabella did a good job, there could have been some improvements. Some sentences could have been reworded but this did not affect the overall meaning of the review. She also could have included more examples from the text to give better detail to the review.
Before reading this I had not heard about the concerns over how long DNA was taking, she explained that with large disasters like this and 9/11 there is no priority to get the samples processed and identified because of the sheer amount to do.
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