Highlights
- •Genetic identification of relic with blood stains assigned to Belgian King Albert I.
- •Identification confirms the official version on the death of King Albert I in 1934.
- •Authentication of the relic was realised using a genetic genealogy approach.
- •Publication of the genetic data would lead to privacy concerns for living relatives.
- •Procedure is proposed towards balancing public research interests & privacy issues.
Abstract
The rapid advancement of technology in genomic analysis increasingly allows researchers
to study human biohistorical materials. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid
to the privacy of the donor’s living relatives and the negative impact they might
experience from the (public) availability of genetic results, even in cases of scientific,
forensic or historical relevance. This issue has become clear during a cold case investigation
of a relic attributed to Belgian King and World War I-hero Albert I who died, according
to the official version, in a solo climbing accident in 1934. Authentication of the
relic with blood stains assigned to the King and collected on the place where his
body was discovered is recognised as one of the final opportunities to test the plausibility
of various conspiracy theories on the King’s demise. While the historical value and
current technological developments allow the genomic analysis of this relic, publication
of genetic data would immediately lead to privacy concerns for living descendants
and relatives of the King, including the Belgian and British royal families, even
after more than 80 years. Therefore, the authentication study of the relic of King
Albert I has been a difficult exercise towards balancing public research interests
and privacy interests. The identification of the relic was realised by using a strict
genetic genealogical approach including Y-chromosome and mitochondrial genome comparison
with living relatives, thereby limiting the analysis to genomic regions relevant for
identification. The genetic results combined with all available historical elements
concerning the relic, provide strong evidence that King Albert I was indeed the donor
of the blood stains, which is in line with the official climbing accident hypothesis
and contradicts widespread ‘mise-en-scène’ scenarios. Since publication of the haploid
data of the blood stains has the potential to violate the privacy of living relatives,
we opted for external and independent reviewing of (the quality of) our data and statistical
interpretation by external forensic experts in haploid markers to guarantee the objectivity
and scientific accuracy of the identification data analysis as well as the privacy
of living descendants and relatives. Although the cold case investigation provided
relevant insights into the circumstances surrounding the death of King Albert I, it
also revealed the insufficient ethical guidance for current genomic studies of biohistorical
material.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 22, 2016
Accepted:
July 14,
2016
Received in revised form:
June 21,
2016
Received:
April 18,
2016
Identification
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© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
