Emerging Issues In Criminal Forensic Genetics

Criminal DNA profiling could soon include phenotypic markers for attributes such as eye, skin, and hair color, gait, ancestry, and predisposition to behavioral traits such as smoking. This technology, referred to as forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP), transforms the existing function of criminal DNA profiling from confirming a suspect's identity to predicting it. The field of forensic genetics will have to confront the ethical and social challenges that FDP will raise. Typically forensic genetic researchers have treated DNA as a source of unique but otherwise meaningless features, not as a source of personal phenotypic information. Thus, they have not confronted the implications of their findings for issues such as race, stigmatization associated with genetic pre-disposition to disease, or privacy. Furthermore much of what medical genetics has learned about these issues will not transfer easily. For example, how relevant are medical genetics guidelines about consent to genetic testing when the testing in question is an FDP analysis of a crime scene sample that reveals a suspect's predisposition to alcoholism? Furthermore, efforts to manage these changes through the familiar means of policy developed by professional organizations will be stymied by the setting in which forensic genetics is applied. Law enforcement, not health care, is the driving force pushing forward interest in FDP. Thus, effectively anticipating the advent of FDP requires not only determining what ethical resources are needed within the field of forensic genetics but also requires examining the means by which FDP policy might evolve. The long-term goal of this research is to facilitate the appropriate and effective application of FDP to criminal forensics while maintaining the integrity of contemporary genetic research and continuing to foster public trust in genetic research. To contribute to this goal, this research will: 1) survey forensic genetics training programs to identify existing resources for ethics and other types of training relevant to these issues; 2) track the progress of FDP research and use; 3) use historical methods to determine how concerns about ethical and social implications of genetic information influenced the development of early federal DNA-typing policy; and, 4) will facilitate interdisciplinary exchange about FDP by constituting a Working Group with experts from forensic genetics including researchers, training program directors, and police officials, as well as researchers from law, bioethics, and history of technology. This project will help to build resources needed in forensic genetics to address the ethical, legal and social issues that are likely to accompany implementation of a new technology, forensic DNA phenotyping. While potentially useful to law enforcement, this technology could fundamentally alter the role of genetics in law enforcement and negatively influence public trust in genetics generally.