Biotechnology is rapidly growing has been very informative to the human eye. It is constantly been in use for many biological concepts and is greatly applied to the field of Forensic Sciences. But, to understand biotechnology in Forensic Sciences, it is important to look at what the term biotechnology really means. “Biotechnology is the manipulation of living things to make products that improve the lives of humans.” The term, Forensic Science is a field in biology where scientists study the biological concepts related to criminology and various civil laws. In forensics there are differents branches such as forensic optometry, forensic pathology , forensic toxicology, forensic linguistics and etc. Biotechnology is greatly used by forensic scientists to collect and process evidence from traces like hair, skin, blood or semen samples, which can be left or found at crime scenes. It is mainly used for its importance of collecting accurate samples. With the samples taken from these crime scenes, using biotechnology scientists can match the evidence with the victims DNA. According to research the outcomes of biotechnology has had many positive than negative effects. There have been many products made through biotechnology like Fingerprint Development Chambers and CN yellow. Finger Print Development chambers are tools that help control the temperatures and humidity levels for developing Ninhydrin to process the fingerprints. This development chamber enables developed fingerprints at conditions of changing temperatures and relative humidity changes as required for the Ninhydrin process, specifically at 80°C. Through these several developments, fingerprints are produced in less than 3 minutes, can easily develop fingerprints from blood stains on any surface, and can develop fingerprints that are months or years old. CN yellow is a product made from biotechnology that is made to see fingerprints in different colours and under fluorescent lights. Seeing it in colour and under the fluroscent lights, gives scientists more accuracy to gather more detail about the suspects DNA. Not only are several products created from biotechnology in forensics but, there have been many processes discovered as well like DNA Profiling , and DNA Fingerprinting. DNA profiling is the process where scientists can find out if the DNA is from a man or woman, who the strand of DNA belongs to, and is also used to identify body fluid samples from the crime scene and victims. It is known as a very sensitive technique in biotechnology which only needs a few skin cells, a hair root or a tiny amount of blood, or tiny amount of saliva. DNA Profiling is especially useful for solving crimes but is also massively used to figure out if people are related to each other, like paternity testing. DNA fingerprinting is a process in which scientists are able to cross match strands of DNA and then compare it with the suspects. This technique joins the biological evidence with the ones from the crime investigation. As mentioned previously, through this technique we are able to track down parents, siblings, and other closely related people to the suspect.
Although there are many more positive outcomes of biotechnology than negative, there also drawbacks. Forensic science laboratories are not always run in the same way. According to a laboratory in Detriot 10% of 200 random cases were determined to have “sub-par quality” control and shocking levels of inexpert. These inconsistent practices led to cases being thrown out which allows the guilty to go free which llows them to create incorrect data. Many systems across the world hold DNA evidence from guilty criminals and DNA evidence from several crime scenes. But, the DNA collected from crime scenes may also contain DNA from innocent victimsor individuals who were at the same location. DNA information such as genetic diseases is often seen by the police, forensic scientists and other individuals which invades the privacy of others thus, causing many information to be leaked through research.The growth of technology has its environmental concerns. In the world of forensic sciences, there is also environmental forensics that help determine how contaminants are exposed to the environment and who takes the responsibility for it. To carry out these procedures harmful chemicals may be used and many are misused which can lead to chmeical poisoning which was only recently discovered. Unfortunately, the environment has become one of the “tragedy of the commons”, and contamination is now seen as “collateral damage” . In forensics many social and ethical issues are associated with biotechnologies like GMOs, stem cells and cloning. With recent enhances in biotechnology forensic scientists help ensure that contanminated sectors in the environment are illegally discovered and brought to the light to justice. Through these discoveries developed from biotechnology, scientists are able to find their accurate results and are able to find justice for many cases.