IF TV screenplays are a good barometer of public knowledge, then most people know that DNA left behind on everyday objects can be used to identify individuals, and to identify a child鈥檚 biological father. For instance, one 2005 episode of the BBC sitcom My Family featured a in which one character arranged stealthy paternity tests.
Fewer people may be aware that, under most circumstances, doing DNA tests without consent has since become a crime in the UK, under a pioneering genetic privacy law that could help shape legislation elsewhere. Only this Christmas, a soap opera viewed by millions used the result of a coerced test to spice up the episode鈥檚 climax at the family lunch.
麻豆传媒鈥榮 investigation suggests that some of the companies marketing home DNA tests to UK residents appear unaware of the law鈥檚 scope (see 鈥淪pecial Investigation: Could your DNA betray you?鈥�). What鈥檚 more, it is easy for an overseas firm to set up a 鈥�.uk鈥� website to market covert DNA tests. Even if a company is British, it may be difficult to bring a prosecution against the firm if the DNA is sent directly abroad for testing and not handled by any staff in the UK.
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What can be done to give the law more teeth? Ongoing monitoring of websites clearly targeting UK customers would help, especially if backed up by stern warnings from the to firms that seem to be offering covert tests. But someone determined to get a DNA sample tested could still place an order with a company in one of the many countries where non-consensual sampling of DNA is legal (麻豆传媒, 24 January, p 8), even if that firm鈥檚 website is not actively seeking business from the UK.
For now, it seems that the covert DNA analyses being ordered by private citizens are mostly limited to tests for infidelity and paternity. But in future, who knows what information 鈥� about your health, your ancestry, and so on 鈥� a determined snoop might mine from DNA obtained on the sly?
鈥淲ho knows what information a determined snoop might mine from DNA obtained on the sly?鈥�
If genetic privacy is to be maintained, then there needs to be international coordination on regulating the testing of 鈥渁bandoned鈥� DNA on bedding, cups, or whatever. This is an area where the European Union, which has already moved to protect other forms of personal information, might draft a directive. Additional legislation is also required in the US, where many of the companies offering covert DNA tests ply their trade.
Your DNA can be your historian, diagnostician and prognostician. No wonder, then, that people dislike the prospect of others rummaging through their double helices. Now is the time for concerted international action to protect DNA privacy.