A building block

The DNA technology Bill is a welcome start

The Union Cabinet gave its nod to the draft DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2018 on Wednesday. It will seek parliamentary approval in the monsoon session. It is the first legislation that seeks to regulate the use of DNA (or deoxyribonucleic acid), which can help solve crimes, identify missing persons, and determine biological relationships. Since the late 1980s, DNA has been extensively used in criminal investigations — both for convicting and exonerating the accused. In one recent instance, the California police searched public DNA databases to locate relatives of a serial killer and discovered the killer’s identity by interrogating those relatives. DNA has also been used to identify missing persons and unidentified bodies. In disaster scenarios, too, where corpses have been mangled beyond recognition, DNA profiling can be a boon. In addition, DNA analysis can help to resolve paternity suits.

The Bill is hugely important because it creates a framework for the oversight of law enforcement authorities and the regulation of a rapidly expanding industry that is using and misusing DNA technologies. They can be misused in various ways and there are huge privacy implications if the data is casually accessible. For example, it is possible to “frame” somebody for a crime if that person’s DNA sample is available. There are also grave privacy concerns. Given that DNA is the most intrinsic property of any living entity, the need for privacy safeguards and for carefully defined, purpose-based sample collection is necessary. Unfortunately, India still doesn’t have overarching privacy legislation. The recommendations of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on privacy safeguards are still not public, nor does India have a European Union-type concept of the “Right to Forget”, which allows citizens to have their DNA records deleted.

Still, this Bill could help set up specific safeguards for keeping DNA secure and private. The Bill conceptualises setting up a DNA Profiling Board consisting of domain experts, who can codify detailed rules and regulations for oversight of the sector. It will be up to the proposed Board to ensure that the principles stated here are followed in practice by formulating more detailed rules. The Bill also allows for the establishment of DNA data banks at the national and state levels. It will provide accreditation for private laboratories and medical facilities, which have been operating in a legal vacuum.

The Bill states that DNA records will be collected only for a limited purpose and held for a limited time before being destroyed. It also states that the specific consent of a sample donor will be sought before collection, even in cases of criminal investigation. It sets very specific purpose-based limits for the use of DNA, with breach of privacy or misuse being punishable by jail sentences. But, the limits may be too narrow because it allows DNA collection only for the purpose of identification; it is unclear what happens to the requirements of medical research. To be sure, DNA is also collected for the purpose of genome mapping, which identifies inherited conditions, and inherited propensities to acquire certain diseases, and aids in the tracing of family trees. DNA analysis is also done in cases of surrogate pregnancy to ensure healthy babies. These purposes seem to be overlooked in the Bill. 

Science is evolving rapidly and throwing up technical and legal puzzles. For instance, new technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 enable genome editing. There is also an ongoing debate whether DNA is the property of an individual or not. So, the Board will have to tackle many such challenging questions. It is hard to wager if it will succeed, yet the Bill is awelcome start.