POTENTIAL ISSUES ARISING FROM TESTING PROCEDURES

• Jurisdiction: Australia

[82.700] Introduction

In Australia all laboratories undertaking forensic DNA testing and parentage testing are accredited under the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) forensic accreditation program. This is based on the ISO17025 Standard and ensures a high degree of compliance with internationally determined standards.

In addition, as indicated above, all these laboratories also employ a widely used and recognised technology to conduct their analyses. Putting aside the usual areas of investigation when challenging results and opinions involving forensic science, this probably leaves three potential problem areas for consideration: contamination, interpretation issues and reporting.

Contamination

Perhaps the major problem of the PCR technique is contamination because of the sensitivity of the technique. Contamination can arise from other samples, the operator or the amplified (copied) DNA. Arguably this should not influence results when working with adequate amounts of good quality DNA, as this will lead to good quality results well out of the influence of low-level contamination and subjective...