History of DNA:

Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid is a complex hereditary material in a cell. It is like a brain memory that guides the body to perform its action. So DNA comprises of chemical nucleotides which are responsible for a cell to divide and grow. Essentially it fulfills the three stages of every cells life process in a multicellular organism.

  1. Reproduction
  2. Growth
  3. Death

Let’s know the chemical nature of this complex molecule to understand it’s application in scientific labs. DNA’s structure is called a double helix. It is made up of 2 biopolymer strands called polynucleotides. Each nucleotide comprises of 4 chemical base

  • Adenine,
  • Guanine,
  • cytosine, and
  • Thymine.

Apart from this base, the nucleotide includes sugar and a phosphate group.  Normally DNA is the storehouse of information is protected inside the nucleus.  By obtaining energy from the cell’s outer environment, this DNA in the nucleus of a cell starts to realigning its shape. Then the cell started to divide during the stage of reproduction. Thereby one cell becomes 2 which go on divide exponentially. These multiple activities of a cell are mediated by essential proteins. Such a sophisticated mechanism becomes the central dogma of life.

The latest technology developed by USA integenx, Inc utilizes this principle of life to analyze the samples. When the samples are collected within 90 to 120 minutes the accuracy of DNA profiling has found to be greater than 90%. This DNA index system is first of its kind initiative allowing DNA samples to be analyzed from live samples. The widely popular branded name is Rapid HIT DNA system.

DNA profiling for forensics:

The theory of DNA profiling and fingerprinting was first put into use in 1986. Earlier the theories were restricted only in the paper but later got applied in a criminal investigation. After two British women have been found murdered, a doctor has been able to establish the witness against suspects. He performed a whole-body analysis to collect samples from the carcass of such victims. He could able to identify imprints in their vaginal body parts.

Earlier considered as suicide by police later claimed as a homicidal killing. The prime suspect is brought to face the music of law with life imprisonment. This has set precedence to claim DNA technology helps in solving the mysteries of crime. Many of the developed countries like the U.S and U.K have adopted it as a standard practice for resolving crimes.

Indian DNA technology bill,2019

The proposed law has been in the making since 2003, which is an attempt to enact a law to regulate the use of DNA technology. Even after nearly 17 years, the technology did not find its way in improving the legal system. But the country has fancy courses related to modern biological courses. Even the government has a separate department of biotechnology. While there is a play of politics involved in the passage of the bill, let’s consider the scientific merits to support modern progressive thoughts.

Pro’s

  1. To improve the conviction rate – better delivery of justice in the criminal justice system
  2. DNA as a tool for conclusive evidence

Con’s:

  1. Getting Legally tormented by law enforcement agencies.
  2. Lack of human skills to handle sensitive information of one’s genetic signature.
  3. capital intensive labs and train human personnel

Forensic technique:

The DNA samples taken from the place of crime has a sample of criminals. Typically in a lab environment, these are analyzed for solving the mysteries of crime. It includes a collection of samples like

  • blood,
  • saliva,
  • hair,
  • broken nails.

By analyzing this samples a unique pattern of an individual is found. This is a genetic signature to be stored in a data bank. It is unique to every person and reveals different characteristics of an individual. 

Although 99.9% of any human DNA is same, some of its genetic pieces in the long strand of double helix DNA stands unique. This makes it possible to differentiate one individual to another. Later this genetic information is utilized in civil and criminal proceedings.

Legal constraints

Solving crimes involve various departments that act in silos. But in order to be successful, different agencies are involved ranging from collection to analysis.

Generally, the police collect the sample from the field and processed by forensic lab expert. A steep gap is often witnessed between those handling cases of crime and those practicing science. This lapse of communication tends to affect the quality of samples being analyzed.

But given the poor lab facilities across the nation, the implementation of this legislation is going to be a huge challenge. Except in a few cities, the infrastructure to carry out the task of analyzing DNA as a piece of information is kept as a challenge.

Any scientific piece of legislation tends to provide a reliable method for authorities to bring the case to conclusive evidence. Such a technical piece of legislation has to be carefully crafted to rely more on scientific procedures rather than giving power to officers.

The modern development of scientific adoption relies on such a piece of legislation. This nation always cries for more pending cases in court. It’s due to such colonial mindset prevalent among those lawmakers.

With more laws giving discretion to law agency and its officers, the pending cases often go unnoticed. On the one side, the public makes hu and cry over such cases in the court, on the other hand, law enforcing agency’s lack of reliable method stands testimony to pending cases. This piece of legislation tends to overcome human errors in collecting evidence to carry out scientific experiments.

Privacy redressal:

Steps:

  1. Collecting one’s genetic data
  2. The procedure of obtaining data through police incase of analyzing missing individuals
  3. Storing individuals genetic information in data banks.

Guidelines by International Society for Forensic genetics:

  1. Forensic DNA lab must inform concerned officer
  2. Before taking a DNA sample of injured or deceased person permission is mandatory
  3. Name of the officer present at the time of sample collection can be clearly mentioned
  4. Guarantee to keep investigation and collection in private 
  5. Proper maintenance to be ensured
  6. Important to make an accurate system and report
  7. If many agencies are collecting DNA samples clarity on the number of people and correct data must be ensured