Germany considers wider use of DNA evidence in criminal cases
By Nature
| 03. 27. 2017
Behind closed doors this week, the German federal justice ministry has been discussing whether to hand police a powerful new tool involving the analysis of DNA samples. The debate is a direct consequence of the rape and murder of a medical student in Freiburg last October.
Two months later the crime became a cause célèbre: the police arrested and charged a young refugee from Afghanistan — and public fears over the million or so refugees who have arrived in Germany in the past few years erupted. Among the political responses, Freiburg’s home state of Baden-Württemberg proposed new legislation to the federal parliament to extend the ways in which police can use genetic analysis.
Wider use of genetic analysis is something that German police and forensic scientists have long wanted. Yet it is unfortunate that in a country with some 1,600 murders every year, it had to be one involving a refugee that finally sparked the proposal. And it would be more unfortunate if the political pressure to push legislation through did not allow the time needed to create a law that is...
Related Articles
By Meagan Parrish, PharmaVoice | 10.10.2025
When CEO Ben Lamm steps into the spotlight, it’s usually to talk about his efforts bringing extinct animals back to life. Once a far-flung idea, Lamm and the company he heads, Colossal Biosciences, have proven they can pull it off...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature | 09.25.2025
A judge in New York rejected a request on 23 September to disqualify the use of cutting-edge DNA sequencing as evidence in a case against an alleged serial killer. The ruling paves the way for a type of DNA analysis...
By Claire Robinson, GMWatch | 09.29.2025
According to an article on BBC News, the Quadram Institute in Norwich is recruiting 76 people with low vitamin D to take part in the ViTaL-D Study, where some participants will eat soup containing tomatoes that have been genetically...