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Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing

DNA paternity testing has recently become more widely available in Japan. The aim of this paper is to examine the issues surrounding (1) the implementing agency, whether the testing is conducted in a commercial direct-to-consumer (DTC) setting or a judicial non-DTC setting, and (2) the implementatio...

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Autor principal: Toya, Waki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Singapore 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5585996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28943970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-017-0009-9
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author Toya, Waki
author_facet Toya, Waki
author_sort Toya, Waki
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description DNA paternity testing has recently become more widely available in Japan. The aim of this paper is to examine the issues surrounding (1) the implementing agency, whether the testing is conducted in a commercial direct-to-consumer (DTC) setting or a judicial non-DTC setting, and (2) the implementation conditions and more specifically the legal capacity of the proband (test subject). Literature research in Japanese and English was conducted. Some countries prohibit commercial DNA testing without the consent of the proband or her or his legally authorized representative. But as in some cases, the results of DTC paternity testing have proven to be unreliable. I propose a complete prohibition of DTC DNA paternity testing in Japan. In many cases of paternity testing, the proband is a minor. This has led to debate about whether proxy consent is sufficient for paternity testing or whether additional safeguards (such as a court order) are required. In cases where commercial DNA testing has been conducted and the test results are produced in court as evidence, the court must judge whether or not to admit these results as evidence. Another important issue is whether or not paternity testing should be legally mandated in certain cases. If we come to the conclusion that DNA test results are the only way to conclusively establish a parent-child relationship, then our society may prioritize even more genetic relatedness over other conceptions of a parent-child relationship. This prioritization could adversely affect families created through assisted reproductive technology (ART), especially in situations where children are not aware of their biological parentage. This paper argues for a complete prohibition of DTC DNA paternity testing in Japan, and highlights that broader ethical and legal deliberation on such genetic services is required
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spelling pubmed-55859962017-09-22 Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing Toya, Waki Asian Bioeth Rev Original Paper DNA paternity testing has recently become more widely available in Japan. The aim of this paper is to examine the issues surrounding (1) the implementing agency, whether the testing is conducted in a commercial direct-to-consumer (DTC) setting or a judicial non-DTC setting, and (2) the implementation conditions and more specifically the legal capacity of the proband (test subject). Literature research in Japanese and English was conducted. Some countries prohibit commercial DNA testing without the consent of the proband or her or his legally authorized representative. But as in some cases, the results of DTC paternity testing have proven to be unreliable. I propose a complete prohibition of DTC DNA paternity testing in Japan. In many cases of paternity testing, the proband is a minor. This has led to debate about whether proxy consent is sufficient for paternity testing or whether additional safeguards (such as a court order) are required. In cases where commercial DNA testing has been conducted and the test results are produced in court as evidence, the court must judge whether or not to admit these results as evidence. Another important issue is whether or not paternity testing should be legally mandated in certain cases. If we come to the conclusion that DNA test results are the only way to conclusively establish a parent-child relationship, then our society may prioritize even more genetic relatedness over other conceptions of a parent-child relationship. This prioritization could adversely affect families created through assisted reproductive technology (ART), especially in situations where children are not aware of their biological parentage. This paper argues for a complete prohibition of DTC DNA paternity testing in Japan, and highlights that broader ethical and legal deliberation on such genetic services is required Springer Singapore 2017-06-30 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5585996/ /pubmed/28943970 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-017-0009-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Toya, Waki
Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title_full Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title_fullStr Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title_full_unstemmed Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title_short Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing
title_sort ethical, legal and social issues in japan on the determination of blood relationship via dna testing
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5585996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28943970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-017-0009-9
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