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DNA & Law

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“We have discovered the secret of life”: these were the words chosen, in the ancient 1953, by two scientists, Watson e Crick, referring to the double-helix molecule named DNA, in order to announce to the world an epochal scientific discovery.
In the last decades, there have been numerous – and they are always more – implications of DNA beyond the boundaries of the proper theoretical scientific knowledge.
The use of this molecule can be seen:
- in the field of discoveries about the existence of genetic diseases before their organic show, such as in the case of genetic therapies, genetic tests (predictive and pre-symptomatic), genetic counselling (prenatal genetic diagnosis and preimplantation diagnosis);
- in the matter of insurances and labour field, as in the recourse of genetic data with the purpose to prevent the stipulation of insurances o the recruitment of workers that could be carriers of genetic diseases;
- in reference to biotechnologies and to patent and intellectual property consequences of DNA;
- as regards populations and familiar groups, in the use for biomedical purposes and for historical reconstruction of genealogical evolution;
- in the field of family law for the ascertainment of parental relationships;
- in order to make personal identification of people or in the research about missed and disappeared people after conflicts or mass-disasters;
- in the subject of trial law as scientific evidence, both in lawsuit (paternity tests) and in criminal trail (for the identification of guilty person on the basis of his/her genetic profile, extracted by his/her biological sample found in the crime scene);
- in the field of the so-called “biobanks”, distinguished as banks used for therapeutic purposes and for research, population biobanks and banks for criminal investigative aims.
The peculiarity of identification that DNA owns by its nature could make it, furtherly, a meaningful means of identification for the population as a whole (the future registry office) and maybe it is not far away from now the moment when every citizen will be gifted with a magnetic card, having a microchip where the personal genetic code will be stored (with the effect of banning the traditional identity cards).
So, DNA is and will be always more a “handy entity”, being commonly used.
If this is true, it is plain that human genetics summons rights and law under a plurality of points of view.
This section aims to be an observatory and a collection of legislative, judicial and literature materials that have dealt and deal with the problems caused by DNA within the legal field in its different contact points, having a specific attention towards the actual and future tendencies of its use.
Anyone who would be interesting in collaborating on this initiative by sending comments or materials, please write an e-mail to the following address: ilariaanna.colussi@unitn.it, specifying the object as “DNA AND LAW”.