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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-07 > 1153631858


From: "Diana" <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] deceased person's sample
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 01:17:38 -0400
In-Reply-To: <007601c6ae06$a50ae7f0$0101a8c0@HighReaches.local>


I'm not a lawyer, but I've had considerable experience with ownership issues...

Money counts. I can see no legal standing for anyone but the purchaser owning
the sample. The person who needs to be concerned about ownership is the person
who lets someone else pay for their test because, by allowing someone else to
pay for it, they gave up control of it, unless there is an independent written
contract between the test subject and the actual purchaser.

I don't see how FTDNA could take any legal stance other than that the purchaser
of the test owns the sample. It's not their job to police or even prove whose
DNA actually gets sent back in the vial or to fight for the test subject's
rights if there's a rift between the test subject and the purchaser.

For the nervous test subject (one who doesn't necessarily trust the purchaser),
the answer is for the test subject to purchase the test, then get personally
reimbursed by the purchaser.

Diana

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Glen Todd [mailto:]
> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 10:18 PM
> To:
> Subject: RE: [DNA] deceased person's sample
>
<snip>
>
> This is an interesting topic. Do we have a lawyer on the
> list who could
> speak to this? My uncle Windsor is an interesting
> E3b1-M78. I'm the
> point of contact (and paid for his initial and deep clade
> tests). Windsor
> is in his mid eighties and has no children (he married quite
> late in life),
> so as his sister's son I'm one of the closest blood relatives.
>
> This seems to me to be a legal question that's worth
> investigating, since it
> could potentially affect a lot of people's projects and
> there's probably a
> decided shortage of case law (since the whole of DNA
> technology is only a
> few decades old). Opinions, anybody?
>
> Glen
>
>

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