The plan, which is backed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, involves sequencing the DNA of everyone in England and adding this information as an attachment to each person's medical file – warns campaigner In April, the Caldicott Committee, including British government chief scien... [More]

  The shift from “hypothesis-driven“ to “data-driven” or hypothesis-free research is a major change for medical science. Although much research has always been based on new observations leading to the generation of new hypotheses, the scientific method is rooted i... [More]

    Dr Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK, warned at a MedConfidential event in London that, beyond electronically storing patient records, the next step for the UK is linking these records with DNA and genetic information on an all-in-one database. It is already public policy,... [More]

The government has announced plans to sequence the whole genomes of 100,000 patients in the NHS. This means every chemical letter in each person's DNA will be stored in their electronic medical records where it can be analysed statistically. Some, but not all, of the proposed group will be cance... [More]

Over the last decade, the use of DNA tests to solve crimes has seen a significant rise in crime investigation in India. But forensic experts warn that the absence of standard practices, quality checks and regulation has resulted in irresponsible and inaccurate application of the technology.The use... [More]

The Forensic Genetics Policy Intiative (FGPI), a project of the Council for Responsible Genetics, GeneWatch UK and Privacy International, is an international project to raise awareness of the privacy and human rights issues associated with the global growth of forensic DNA databases.  FGPI wo... [More]

A new version of a draft law that proposed to set up a national DNA fingerprint database of criminals, including rapists, murderers and kidnappers, plans to substantially expand the type of offenders it covers to include people convicted of drunk driving and adultery.   The expanded lis... [More]

The government plans to introduce a bill in Parliament that aims to create a pool of “DNA profiles” of “offenders” as part of efforts to make crime detection more effective in the country. However, many experts warn of likely misuse of such sweeping powers.   The... [More]

This week the Brazilian Congress approved Bill 2.458/2011, which regulates the collection and storage of genetic profiles from individuals for criminal investigations. It was an uncommonly fast approval of the Bill – it took only seven months in each House. Due to the risks of the Bill for the... [More]

Teenagers should be offered gene tests to see if they are carrying incurable diseases that could be passed on to children, official guidelines say. They would be encouraged to undergo screening which would show up any DNA flaws that determine inherited conditions such as cystic fibrosis and D... [More]