This report considers whether current police powers in the UK to take and retain bioinformation are justified by the need to fight crime. The principle of proportionality is used as the basis for a number of recommendations [made] to policy makers ...

From DNA sequences stored on computer databases to archived forensic samples and biomedical records, bioinformation comes in many forms. Its unique provenance – the fact that it is 'mined' from the very fabric of the human body – makes it a mercurial resource; one that no one seemingly owns, but in which many have deeply vested interests. Who has the right to exploit and benefit from bioinformation? The individual or community from whom it was derived? The scientists and technicians who make its extraction both possible and meaningful or the commercial and political interests which fund this work? Who is excluded or even at risk from its commercialisation? And what threats and opportunities might the generation of 'Big Bioinformational Data' raise? In this groundbreaking book, authors Bronwyn Parry and Beth Greenhough explore the complex economic, social and political questions arising from the creation and use of bioinformation. Drawing on a range of highly topical cases, including the commercialization of human sequence data; the forensic use of retained bioinformation; biobanking and genealogical research, they show how demand for this resource has grown significantly driving a burgeoning but often highly controversial global economy in bioinformation. But, they argue, change is afoot as new models emerge that challenge the ethos of privatisation by creating instead a dynamic open source 'bioinformational commons' available for all future generations.

Matching DNA samples from crime scenes and suspects is rapidly becoming a key source of evidence for use in our justice system. DNA Technology in Forensic Science offers recommendations for resolving crucial questions that are emerging as DNA typing becomes more widespread. The volume addresses key issues: Quality and reliability in DNA typing, including the introduction of new technologies, problems of standardization, and approaches to certification. DNA typing in the courtroom, including issues of population genetics, levels of understanding among judges and juries, and admissibility. Societal issues, such as privacy of DNA data, storage of samples and data, and the rights of defendants to quality testing technology. Combining this original volume with the new update-The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence-provides the complete, up-to-date picture of this highly important and visible topic. This volume offers important guidance to anyone working with this emerging law enforcement tool: policymakers, specialists in criminal law, forensic scientists, geneticists, researchers, faculty, and students.

This open access book uses a critical sociological perspective to explore contemporary ways of reformulating the governance of crime through genetics. Through the lens of scientific knowledge and genetic technology, Machado and Granja offer a unique perspective on current trends in crime governance. They explore the place and role of genetics in criminal justice systems, and show how classical and contemporary social theory can help address challenges posed by social processes and interactions generated by the uses, meanings, and expectations attributed to genetics in the governance of crime. Cutting-edge methods and research techniques are also integrated to address crucial aspects of this social reality. Finally, the authors examine new challenges emerging from recent paradigm shifts within forensic genetics, moving away from the construction of evidence as presented in court to the production of intelligence guiding criminal investigations.

This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Conference on Ethics and Policy of Biometrics and International Data Sharing, ICEB 2010, held in Hong Kong, during January 4-5, 2010. The 25 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on Privacy Protection and Challenges, Legal Challenges, Engineering and Social Challenges, Ethical and Medical Concerns, Policy Issues and Deployments in Asia, Challenges in Large Scale Biometrics Identification.

Bioinformatics, computational biology, is a relatively new field that applies computer science and information technology to biology. In recent years, the discipline of bioinformatics has allowed biologists to make full use of the advances in Computer sciences and Computational statistics for advancing the biological data. Researchers in life sciences generate, collect and need to analyze an increasing number of different types of scientific data, DNA, RNA and protein sequences, in-situ and microarray gene expression including 3D protein structures and biological pathways. This book is aiming to provide information on bioinformatics at various levels. The chapters included in this book cover introductory to advanced aspects, including applications of various documented research work and specific case studies related to bioinformatics. This book will be of immense value to readers of different backgrounds such as engineers, scientists, consultants and policy makers for industry, government, academics and social and private organisations.

Comprehensive and concise, this handbook has chapters on computing visualization, large database designs, advanced pattern matching and other key bioinformatics techniques. It is a practical guide to computing in the growing field of Bioinformatics--the study of how information is represented and transmitted in biological systems, starting at the molecular level.

This book sets out to define and consolidate the field of bioinformation studies in its transnational and global dimensions, drawing on debates in science and technology studies, anthropology and sociology. It provides situated analyses of bioinformation journeys across domains and spheres of interpretation. As unprecedented amounts of data relating to biological processes and lives are collected, aggregated, traded and exchanged, infrastructural systems and machine learners produce real consequences as they turn indeterminate data into actionable decisions for states, companies, scientific researchers and consumers. Bioinformation accrues multiple values as it transverses multiple registers and domains, and as it is transformed from bodies to becoming a subject of analysis tied to particular social relations, promises, desires and futures. The volume harnesses the anthropological sensibility for situated, fine-grained, ethnographically grounded analysis to develop an interdisciplinary dialogue on the conceptual, political, social and ethical dimensions posed by bioinformation.

As increasing quantities of health and biological information are generated, the need for us all to consider the human impacts of its ubiquity becomes more urgent than ever. This book explains the ethical imperative to take seriously the potential impacts on our identities of encountering bioinformation about ourselves.

Hallinan argues that the substantive framework presented by the GDPR offers an admirable base-line level of protection for the range of genetic privacy rights engaged by biobanking.