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María Casado participates in the National Commission’s meeting on the forensic use of DNA

By 27 de March de 2009November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 27.03.2009

María Casado participates in the National Commission’s meeting on the forensic use of DNA

María Casado, director of the Bioethics and Law Observatory (), located at the Barcelona Science Park, has participated today in the first meeting of the National Commission on the forensic use of DNA, a recently created organism linked to the Ministry of Justice, of which she is a member. This commission, comprised of experts from different fields, aims to establish the criteria for the scientific research and technique that must be followed when performing DNA analysis, and to accredit the laboratories that carry out these analyses, as well as to provide the legal safety necessary for results to be applied in determining the guilt or innocence of the defendants in legal processes.

The creation of this organism, which was established at the end of 2008 by means of the Royal Decree 1977/2008 (cv:BOE-A-2008-19992-C) was already forecasted in the Organic Law of November 25 2003, which entitled the judge to obtain biological samples of suspects in order to determine their genetic profile, and also in Organic Law 10/2007, dated October 8, governing the police database of identifiers identifiers obtained from DNA, which assigned the judge the task of accrediting the laboratories that would provide this information.

Its members, assigned by the Government and the State’s Security Bodies, include magistrates, experts in medical genetics and molecular pathology of the National Health System, forensic doctors, scientific police representatives and bioethics experts.

Aside from the aforementioned functions, this Commission will be able to formulate proposals to improve the efficacy of research and pursuit of crime. It will also hold a key role in the operation of the national database of identifiers obtained from these samples, given that it will have to assess the legal, scientific-technical and logistical aspects that its development entails.