Genetic Suspects: Global Governance of Forensic DNA Profiling and Databasing

Description

As DNA forensic profiling and databasing become established as key technologies in the toolbox of the forensic sciences, their expanding use raises important issues that promise to touch everyone's lives. In an authoritative global investigation of a diverse range of countries, including those at the forefront of these technologies' development and use, this book identifies and provides critical reflection upon the many issues of privacy; distributive justice; DNA information system ownership; biosurveillance; function creep; the reliability of collection, storage and analysis of DNA profiles; the possibility of transferring medical DNA information to forensics databases; and democratic involvement and transparency in governance, an emergent key theme. This book is timely and significant in providing the essential background and discussion of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions for academics, practitioners, public interest and criminal justice organisations, and students of the life sciences, law, politics, and sociology.

Richard Hindmarsh is Associate Professor at Griffith School of Environment, and Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. He specialises in co-produced sociotechnical systems analysis informed by science, technology and society (STS) studies; governance and regulation studies; environmental policy; and the politics and sociology of green biotechnology and forensic DNA technologies. Professor Hindmarsh is also an international expert reviewer for both the Australian Research Council and the UK Economic and Social Research Council and invited International Advisory Board member of the (US) Council for Responsible Genetics. Currently, as its co-founder, he is further establishing the Asia-Pacific STS Network, a new regional research community spanning Australasia, East and SE Asia and Oceania, as its convenor for 2010-2011. Barbara Prainsack is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Biomedicine and Society (CBAS) at King's College London, UK. A political scientist by training, her research focuses on how politics, bioscience, religion and 'culture' mutually shape each other, and how they interact with how we understand ourselves as human beings, persons, and citizens. Her research on regulatory and societal aspects of human cloning, stem cell research, and DNA testing (both medical and forensic) has featured in national and international media such as BBC News, ABC National Radio (Australia), and Die Zeit. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Science as Culture and Personalized Medicine, and a member of the National Bioethics Commission in Austria.

'... tease[s] out a number of key themes that are not only relevant to current academic debates but are also significant in general public discussions on the role and parameters of the police use of DNA and genetic technologies. Written in an accessible and lucid style ... suitable for a range of readers from policy makers and legal professionals to anyone interested in the contemporary practices of using science in law enforcement.' Genomics, Society and Policy '... this compilation of essays makes Genetic Suspects an interesting read for anyone interested in the growing use of DNA evidence in legal systems around the world.' Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine