Ethical, legal, and social challenges of next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS) in forensic criminal identification

Abstract

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), otherwise known as Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS), or High Throughput Sequencing (HTS), promises to revolutionize the field of forensic science in supporting the activities of the criminal justice system. Besides being aware of the potential of NGS technologies for supporting activities of the criminal justice, it is urgent to attend to its Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI), including conflicts with human rights, especially in terms of privacy and discrimination, data protection and security of genome-wide data, and challenges related to data sharing. This chapter provides an overview of the existing ELSI debate about NGS technologies in criminal identification, and identifies the gaps in the literature. We argue it is urgent to have guidelines to support NGS's ethically responsible implementation and use in forensic practice, and within the criminal justice system more broadly, since the technology has advanced faster than the capacity to introduce and implement basic safeguards sensitive to ethical, legal, and social challenges.