Blood is not abandoned: The limits of police use of DNA
Attorney Sharon Nahari analyzes the limits of police use of DNA samples, following a report on taking blood without consent at Kaplan Medical Center. The article cites the Farchi ruling, which states that consent to provide a sample for a specific investigation does not permit its use for other cases, and that evidence obtained in breach of that promise must be excluded.
Attorney Sharon Nahari analyzes the limits of police use of DNA samples, following a publication on Walla about taking blood from patients without consent at Kaplan Medical Center. The article focuses on the question of when law enforcement authorities are permitted to use genetic information collected in a medical or investigative context. Nahari cites the Supreme Court ruling in the Farchi case (CrimA 4988/08), where it was determined that a DNA sample taken with a promise that it would be used only for a specific investigation cannot later be used for other cases. Justice Levy ruled that retroactively validating such data harms public trust. The article emphasizes that each stage of the process must be examined: the authority to take the sample, the consent, the database into which the profile was entered, the cross-references performed, and the legal basis for transferring the information. Nahari argues that a person should not be convicted based on DNA obtained or cross-referenced unlawfully, and that evidence arising from such a violation must be excluded, in accordance with the judicial exclusion doctrine.