"Study Questions the Medical Privacy of Forensic Samples"

According to researchers at San Francisco State University, law enforcement databases may contain private information about individuals, including crime victims. Contrary to what the legal community has believed for nearly 30 years, a new study from San Francisco State University suggests that forensic profiles may indirectly reveal medical information, possibly including that of crime victims. The findings may have ethical and legal consequences. When selecting forensic markers, the central assumption was that there would be no information about the individuals other than identification. The researchers' paper calls that assumption into question. The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is a system that organizes criminal justice DNA databases and uses specific genetic markers to identify individuals. National, state, and local crime labs contribute to these databases by providing profiles based on samples collected from crime scene evidence, convicted offenders, felony arrestees, missing persons, and other information. The database can be used by law enforcement to try to match samples discovered during an investigation to profiles already stored in the database. CODIS profiles are made up of an individual's genetic variants as a set of Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), which are DNA sequences that repeat at different frequencies among individuals. Since the 1990s, 20 STRs have been selected for forensic CODIS profiling because it was assumed they did not relay medical information. If these profiles contained any trait information, medical privacy issues could arise. If CODIS markers are linked to the expression of genes associated with disease and health, the data in the CODIS database may jeopardize an individual's medical privacy. This article continues to discuss findings from the researchers' study on the medical privacy of forensic samples. 

San Francisco State University reports "Study Questions the Medical Privacy of Forensic Samples"