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117 Int'l J. Legal Med. 1 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/injlegame117 and id is 1 raw text is: Int J Legal Med (2003) 117: 1 DOI 10.1007/s00414-002-0343-6 Niels Morling International Recommendations for Paternity Testing Standards Received: 1 July 2002 / Accepted: 17 September 2002 / Published online: 11 January 2003 © Springer-Verlag 2003 Paternity testing with DNA techniques is now very pow- erful and safe if properly performed. In normal paternity cases it is possible to obtain very high weights of the evi- dence if multiple polymorphic, genetic systems are inves- tigated. Thus, paternity testing with DNA techniques has reached a state where the public trusts in the results of pa- ternity testing due to the mere fact that DNA typing tech- niques are being used. As anybody knows, the quality of the work and the extent of the DNA investigations may vary. Therefore, many scientists involved in paternity test- ing want to have guidance or standards for paternity test- ing. In this issue, the first International Recommendations for Paternity Testing Standards by the Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) of the International Society for Foren- sic Genetics (ISFG) are published. The commission mem- bers were appointed by the English, French, German, Ital- ian, Japanese, Spanish/Portuguese speaking working groups of the ISFG, the American Association of Blood Banks and the ISFG board members also took part in the com- mission. Due to the many differences in handling disputed pa- ternity in various countries, it was only possible to formu- late basic recommendations for paternity testing laborato- ries. The recommendations may serve as a platform to de- velop more detailed local standards addressing the spe- cific technical and legal requirements in a country. N. Morling (®) Department of Forensic Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Frederik V's Vej 11, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: niels.morling@forensic.ku.dk, Tel.: +45-35-326110, Fax: +45-35-326120 The most important part of the recommendations of the PTC is the recommendation that paternity testing be per- formed in accordance with the international laboratory standards concerning measurement and testing, the ISO 17025:1999 standards General requirements for the com- petence of testing and calibration laboratories. Laborato- ries performing in accordance with the ISO 17025 stan- dards will have the possibility to be accredited by the na- tional accreditation bureau. The requirements in ISO 17025 are stated in general terms. Therefore, the PTC formulated recommendations that explain and clarify some of the ISO 17025 paragraphs in relation to paternity testing. However, in accordance with the basic idea of the ISO standards, the recommen- dations do not change any paragraph of the ISO 17025 standards. Some scientists may be disappointed because the rec- ommendations do not give specific guidance to e.g. the genetic systems of choice, the recommended number of genetic systems investigated, the minimum value of the paternity index, etc. Such decisions must be made locally. However, by recommending the use of the ISO 17025 standards, the ISFG recommendations set basic standards for management of the laboratory, personnel, quality sys- tems, technical performance and reporting that will be a good fundament for local decisions concerning the details of genetic investigations in paternity cases. Niels Morling Chairman Paternity Testing Commission International Society of Forensic Genetics

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