The Limits Of Dna Testing Used As Evidence In Court. A Report Based On The Practice Of The Institute Of Legal Medicine Cluj-Napoca

The evaluation of the evidentiary value of scientific evidence is the assessment of the strength of the link between a finding and a person. It is usually a statistical assessment but its presentation is full of pitfalls. The evaluation of scientific evidence must be based on an established methodology to both evaluate, expose and interpret the evidence. The formidable expansion in the use of DNA has not only increased the extent of interaction between forensic scientists and lawyers but more importantly, it has increased the relevance of socio‐legal and ethical perspectives in strategies for applying forensic DNA techniques. Since its beginnings, DNA testing was surrounded by an aura of infallibility. Nevertheless, errors may occur. It is important to underscore that DNA testing should be considered one more piece of evidence within the context of a criminal or forensic investigation, and that the judicial sentences should be based on the evidence as a whole and not just on the genetic studies. However judges, prosecutors and defenders, due in part to different educational background as compared to scientists, may ignore potential restrictions concerning DNA profiling results.