The Ethical and Legal Issues in DNA Parentage Testing

親子鑑定是判斷人與人之間生物血緣關係的檢驗方式。公元1985年，英國遺傳學家Alec Jefferys將DNA的分析技術應用至親子鑑定上。隨著分子生物學技術的進步，DNA鑑定方法越來越快速、靈敏與可靠，目前的主流趨勢為運用聚合酶連鎖反應分析體染色體短片段相連重複序列的多型性。 人類染色體的DNA內，短片段相連重複序列係指重複單位的序列僅二至七個鹼基，且相連排列的重複次數極少者，其具有長度多型性的特徵。透過聚合酶連鎖反應大量複製DNA，再藉由短片段相連重複序列的多型性，即可將不同的個體加以區分，這就是人身鑑定的原理。 本論文對於DNA親子鑑定進行簡要的回顧，並介紹臨床執業上需要進行DNA親子鑑定的原因及所面臨的倫理與法律議題。DNA親子鑑定可能為受檢者個人與家屬帶來心理社會上的衝擊，因而本文將探討以下四個主題，其中包括：個人隱私與尊重自主、代理問題討論、親子關係探討及相關的法律問題，同時也提出對於現況與未來執業的倫理與法律思考。Parentage testing determines whether two individuals have a biological parent-child relationship. British geneticist Alec Jeffreys developed the technique of DNA fingerprinting used for human identification in 1985. With the advance of techniques in molecular biology, rapid, sensitive, and reliable DNA testing has become available. The most advanced and accurate method for parentage testing is using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to analyze short tandem repeats (STRs) polymorphism. In the human genome, there are some repetitive and short DNA fragments called short tandem repeats (STRs), which have the characteristic of length polymorphism. Through polymerase chain reaction, a sufficient amount of products can be generated by repeating the specific DNA fragments. By identifying the variations in the number of STRs, the relationships between samples can be confirmed. This thesis provides a brief review of DNA parentage testing and introduces ethical/ legal issues in clinical practice. DNA parentage testing may have psychosocial impacts on tested individuals and their family members. Therefore, four major topics including respect for autonomy and privacy, substitute decision-making, investigations of parent-child relationship and related legal problems are discussed. Ethical and legal reflections on the current situation and on future practice are also put forward at the same time