George, Marcos and Paul:
I thought you might like to look at the following article penned by Jennifer Clay:
DNA testing plays modern-day detective role in civil suits
From The Lawyers Weekly
Focus on Forensic Services
June 6, 1997
By Jennifer Clay
When you hear the term "DNA," the criminal trials of O.J. Simpson, Guy Paul Morin, and Allan Legere almost automatically spring to mind.
But can you name a civil trial in which DNA played a part? Probably not, but the fact is that the number of DNA tests in civil cases far exceeds the number of criminal DNA tests in Canada.
On the civil side, DNA testing is used to resolve issues of paternity in family matters, estate disputes and immigration family sponsorship applications.
300 cases
In fact, there are more than 300 such cases per month in Canada.
Other more unusual applications include the assessment of liability in auto accident investigations, and the identification of perpetrators in harassment cases.
Why use DNA? - What makes DNA so easy to use in these and similar types of applications?
First, the DNA molecule is unique to all individuals-with the exception of identical twins.
This makes it useful in non-paternity applications in determining whether two different samples came from the same individual in auto accident investigations, for example.
However, a second characteristic of DNA is that it is shared, to a certain extent, amongst family members.
Siblings share approximately 50 per cent of their DNA with each other; a parent shares an average of 50 per cent of their DNA with their child, while more distant relatives, such as an aunt and nephew, share 25 per cent of their DNA.
DNA is also extremely easy to obtain from virtually any biological sample, including blood, bone, skin, hair roots, semen, and tooth pulp, to name a few. Recent advances in the science of DNA have even allowed the extraction of DNA from the rim of a cup, the sweatband of a baseball cap, band-aids, envelope flaps and stamps, plus tiny hair and skin samples from serious auto accidents.
Once DNA has been extracted from a biological sample, the rest of the process takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the technique used.
At this time, there are two DNA technologies available.
The RFLP method (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorpism) has been in use since the 1980s, while the PCR technique (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is a more recent development.
RFLP technology is used for larger quantities of good quality DNA samples which are usually extracted from fresh samples.
PCR methods are used to analyze DNA that is present in small quantities or that is degraded, as might be the case for a hair sample from an auto accident.
The family arbiter-DNA testing is in widespread use in paternity cases and has been since 1989.
At this time, it is estimated that DNA test results are used in more than 250 cases per month in Canada.
In many of these cases, the DNA test is a precursor to the first court date, so this has resulted in the saving of court time.
In British Columbia, if one or more of the parties is unwilling, a court order will be required, but family court rules, such as Rule 10 of the Family Relations Act, allow tests to be ordered and adverse inferences to be drawn if the alleged father does not comply.
It is also noteworthy that an analysis of previous paternity test results indicates that in 75 per cent of the cases, the DNA test result is an inclusion (i.e., the DNA of the child and alleged father match). This means that the exclusion rate is 25 per cent.
The genetic will-In recent years, there have been a number of will variance cases which have made use of DNA test results.
A typical case would involve an alleged child of a deceased male who wishes to claim a portion of his will.
The case can proceed in a number of ways depending on whether there are useable samples available from the deceased.
For example, the deceased may have been hospitalized for an extended period of time and in such circumstances, a tissue biopsy might be available. Barring that, siblings of the deceased (or other known offspring) could be tested against the alleged child.
The last resort would be to exhume the body of the deceased, in order to obtain a comparative sample.
All three of these situations are relatively common for a DNA lab and with the recent adoption of PCR testing, virtually no case is unresolvable-unless the body has been cremated and there are no known living relatives.
It is important to note, in a situation in which the living relatives (and current claimants) are unwilling to participate in a test because of their vested interest, certain court rules (such as Rule 10 in B.C.) have been used to order an unwilling party to participate in the test.
It is also interesting to note that there are an increasing number of men who are banking their DNA in the event of an estate dispute after their death.
DNA as a birth certificate-The use of DNA testing in resolving the issue of "relatedness" in family sponsorship applications has been accepted by Immigration Canada since 1991.
Immigration policy states that DNA testing is to be used when all other means of establishing identity have been exhausted.
It is estimated that DNA has been used to resolve more than 3,500 cases since 1991.
Detective DNA-A relatively new application of DNA tests is to establish a link between "hate mail" and the alleged harasser.
Using the newer technology called PCR, one can extract DNA from a flap of an envelope or even from a postage stamp, and amplify it to obtain a useable quantity of DNA.
Of course, this test only works if the lab is provided with a known sample from the accused for comparative purposes.
This usually requires the services of private investigator, who can follow the suspect and obtain discarded pieces of gum, used cans of soda pop, straws, discarded facial tissue, band-aids etc.
While the need for this type of testing is quite uncommon, DNA results have been obtained in such cases, and used in at least one court case so far.
Driver ID-In serious auto accidents involving more than one occupant, there are sometimes questions or conflicting stories as to the identity of the driver.
The ultimate insurance issue is that of liability, but the death of one or more occupants, plus the injury-related (or alcohol-induced) memory losses of the occupants, prevents the investigators from obtaining clear answers.
Even with the aid of occupant kinematics and sophisticated computer re-construction, investigating engineers can be baffled.
Increasingly, insurance investigators are obtaining biological samples from key places in the auto wreck and comparing them to DNA from the occupants.
Evidentiary samples can range from blood spatters on the dashboard and skin samples embedded in the steering wheel to hair samples in the windshield.
This scientific tool has allowed the conclusive identification of drivers, and the assessment of liability.
Jennifer Clay is director of sales and marketing for Helix Biotech Ltd. in Richmond, B.C. |
