Right to Protect Genetic Data

Context: 

The Supreme Court has held in a judgement that children cannot be mechanically subjected to DNA tests in each and every case between warring parents as a short­cut to establish proof of infidelity.

Observations of the Supreme Court:

• Genetic information is personal and intimate. It sheds light on a person’s very essence. The information goes to the very heart of who she or he is.
  • “Children have the right not to have their legitimacy questioned frivolously before a court of law. This is an essential attribute of the right to privacy. 
• Courts are, therefore, required to acknowledge that children are not to be regarded like material objects, and be subjected to forensic/DNA testing, particularly when they are not parties to the divorce proceeding. 
• It is imperative that children do not become the focal point of the battle between spouses.
• Besides, mechanical orders allowing DNA tests would also harm the reputation and dignity of the mother.
• Family courts should direct for a DNA test only in expedient situations and in the interest of justice, as a last resort.
• Justice Nagarathna drew attention to the rights of privacy, autonomy and identity recognised under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

About ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’:

• It is a treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989.
• It recognises a child as every human being under 18 years old.
• It sets out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities.
• It includes rights such as Right to Education, Right to Rest and Leisure, Right to Protection from Mental or Physical Abuse including Rape and Sexual Exploitation.
• It is the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty.
• The Convention acknowledges the control that individuals, including children, have over their own personal boundaries and the means by which they define who they are in relation to other people. 

                                                                                                                              News Source: The Hindu