More than ten years later, what should be done with the unidentified remains of 9/11 victims? That question—which many assumed had long been answered—came back to light this weekend when a group of families of victims gathered to protest a plan to store the remains in a repository, 70 feet below ground in between the National September 11th Memorial and the Museum next door.
"Since the very beginning, victims' family members have strongly advocated for the unidentified remains to be returned to the World Trade Center site," Joseph C. Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said in a statement on the issue yesterday. "This is the plan that has been honored and is being implemented."
But some families are not amused at the idea of having the remains kept in a wall visible as part of a tourist attraction (though there will be a private viewing area built just for them). They'd much rather the remains be kept above ground in a "tomb of the unknown soldier" kind of thing. And they say that, at least according to an unofficial poll of 350 families, a whopping 95 percent of them are against the repository. "The 9/11 museum is not a graveyard," Norman Siegel, attorney for 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victim, said.
So now the families are asking Congress to hold hearings to "establish protocols on handling remains of victims of large-scale disaster." And in the meantime, the issue isn't likely to be resolved for a bit—financial troubles have brought the museum aspect of the memorial to a standstill. One thing to remember whatever happens to the remains? No matter what they will be under the jurisdiction of the city's chief medical examiner's office and—no matter where they go—and will be available for analysis in the future using any scientific advances that become available.
