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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re Holy Trinity, Bosham
(Chichester Consistory Court: Hill Ch, December 2003)
Exhumation – DNA testing
The petitioners sought a faculty for the archaeological investigation of a gravesite believed to contain the remains of King Harold II. The chancellor adopted the following approach to his decision:
(i) As a matter of Christian doctrine, burial in consecrated ground is final;
(ii) There is thus a presumption against exhumation;
(iii) Exhumation in this context comprises any disturbance of human remains which have been interred;
(iv) Departure from the presumption can only be justified by special circumstances;
(v) An applicant might be able to demonstrate a matter of great national, historic or other importance concerning the human remains;
(vi) An applicant might also be able to demonstrate the value of some particular research or scientific experimentation;
(vii) Only if the combined effect if the evidence under (v) and (vi) proves a cogent and compelling case for the legitimacy of the proposed research will such special circumstances be made out.
In considering the extensive historic, scientific and archaeological expert evidence the chancellor considered that there were a number of matters which undermined the legitimacy of the proposed research including:
(i) Academic opinion indicated that any human remains found were highly unlikely to be those of Harold;
(ii) The chance of obtaining DNA from any such remains was as small as 10%-30%;
(iii) DNA testing was, in any event, useless in the absence of a comparative sample from a descendant of Harold;
(iv) The margin of error in carbon-dating could produce, at best, inconclusive results.
The faculty was refused.
[RA]
This full judgment may now be found at [2004] 2 WLR 833.
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