| dc.description.abstract | Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA contains the
genetic information of every human being.
Analysis of DNA using modern molecular
biology techniques makes it possible for law
enforcement agencies to fight crime efficiently by
accurately identifying criminals. At present DNA
analysis is done in Sri Lanka at the request of law
enforcement agencies in several government and
private institutions. In addition to these there are
two known privately funded organizations that
analyse DNA for various purposes. There is no
legal frame work in Sri Lanka to empower any of
these agencies to analyse and store DNA based
data. More importantly there is no law to govern
the accessing and use of this data by anybody.
This makes it possible for the misuse of DNA
data bases held by these institutions. In view of
this, there is an urgent need for the establishment
of a legal framework in Sri Lanka to govern the
extraction of DNA, retention, and accessing of
DNA based data by both governmental and nongovernmental
organizations. The legal systems
in place in UK, USA and India are presented for
comparison and a centralized authority to oversee
the operational procedures for quality assurance,
preservation and ownership of DNA data and
maintaining confidentiality is recommended. | en_US |
