PARIS (AFP) - – DNA tests designed to pinpoint development
disorders in children can also inadvertently reveal whether a child
was conceived through incest, a letter published by The Lancet on
Friday warned.
Doctors led by Arthur Beaudet at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston, Texas, said the discovery opens thorny ethical and legal
problems for clinicians.
The test, known as DNA microarray analysis, looks for patterns
of single changes in the genetic code that can point to known
disorders.
But the patterns can also reveal details about the donor's
parentage without the parents having to undergo a test.
The letter gives the example of a three-year-old boy with
multiple development problems where there was a telltale
homogeneity, or a lack of variation, at key points in his
chromosomes.
"These regions accounted for about a quarter of the genome -- a
finding most consistent with the child having been conceived by
first-degree relatives," the letter said.
"Disabilities are known to be frequent in children born of
incestuous parentage."
The discovery poses a dilemma for doctors that will amplify as
microarray analysis becomes used more widely, the authors said.
In some jurisdictions, a doctor is required to report a likely
incestuous relationship to the police or child protection services
if the mother of the child is a minor.
In cases where the mother is an adult, the doctor's legal
obligation is less clear, although there remains ethical concerns
about whether she had been a victim of sexual abuse by her father
or a brother.
The letter calls on medical institutions to compile a list of
guidelines for doctors, drawing on the expertise of geneticians and
ethics committees.