WP3 - Ethics
Workpackage Leader: Kris Dierickx (K.U.Leuven)
This workpackage wants to contribute to the analysis of ethical and policy issues about the creation and organisation of the forensic DNA analysis, the methods of obtaining and using samples, issues related to informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, the right of self-defence of a community. Based on the careful examination of already existing national forensic DNA databases, the analysis of individual rights related to privacy, confidentiality, dignity, physical and moral integrity, we want to proactively contribute to the ethical discussion of the collection and processing of human biological samples and their related information data in the context of forensic DNA databases.
The WP will start with an overview of the existing national forensic DNA databases of all (candidate) member states of the European Union. It will gather general information about the databases and about the management of the database. It will focus on ethical issues such as consent, entry criteria, and removal criteria. The WP will analyse if there are important ethical differences between DNA profiling and other techniques used such as fingerprinting, alcoholic blood test or breathalyser. It will analyse the notion of genetic exceptionalism in the context of forensic DNA testing and database elaboration. The WP will analyse if concrete proposed systems (e.g. forensic DNA database to be extended to the entire population as Alec Jeffreys suggested) are ethically acceptable. Therefore, the WP will analyse the individual rights of individuals that are at stake in the context of the elaboration of a forensic DNA database. Particular attention will be devoted to the right to privacy, the dignity of persons, the right of physical and moral integrity, the presumption of innocence, the right to health and to the right to liberty. Main texts such as the universal declaration of human rights, the charter of fundamental rights of the European Union and the ethical literature will be studied carefully related to this issue. The WP will analyse how these individual rights should be balanced against the right of self-defense of a state. The WP will analyse the inclusion and removal criteria of DNA profiles in forensic DNA databases.
