ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications)
Definition
The research domain and policy framework addressing the broader consequences of genetic science, including forensic genetics: familial searching, genetic privacy, consent, discriminatory impacts, and the downstream use of forensic genetic data. Originally developed alongside the Human Genome Project in the 1990s.
- Origin
- US Human Genome Project, 1990s
- Scope
- Familial searching, privacy, consent, data use
- Nature
- Research and policy framework
Common questions
Why does ELSI matter to a forensic DNA laboratory?+
Familial searching and expanding reference databases raise consent and privacy questions that shape laboratory policy, sample retention rules, and arguments raised in court about how genetic evidence was obtained and used.
Is ELSI itself a binding law?+
No. It is a research and policy framework, not legislation. Individual jurisdictions translate its concerns into different statutes, such as the differing DNA database retention rules in the UK, US, and India.
Related terms
- BSA 2023 § 39
- Section 39 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, the provision governing expert opinion evidence in Indian courts. Replaced Indian Evidence Act 1872...
- Daubert Standard
- The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
- Familial Searching
- The deliberate use of partial DNA profile matches in a forensic database to identify biological relatives of an unknown contributor, on the...
- Frye Standard
- The US legal test for admissibility of scientific evidence, originating from Frye v. United States (1923), which required that a technique be...
- People V. Castro (1989)
- New York Supreme Court case in which early RFLP DNA evidence was excluded under the Frye standard because the specific testing procedures...
- Prosecutor's Fallacy
- The error of treating the RMP (or its reciprocal) as the probability that the defendant is innocent, or as the probability that...
- R V. Doheny and Adams (1996)
- UK Court of Appeal judgment (Lord Justice Phillips) establishing the framework for DNA statistical evidence: the expert reports the random-match probability; the...