Genetic genealogy databases have become particularly attractive to law enforcement agencies, especially in the United States (US), which have started to employ genealogists to search them with unknown origin DNA from unidentified human remains (suicides, missing persons) or from a serious crime scene, to help identify the victim, or a potential suspected perpetrator, respectively. While this investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) technique holds much promise, its use – particularly during serious criminal investigations – has sparked a range of social and ethical concerns. Receiving consent for IGG from genetic genealogy database users has been argued as a way to address such concerns. While critiques of the importance of consent are well documented in the biomedical and forensic biobanking literature, this has not been explored for IGG. We sought to address this gap by exploring the views of UK stakeholders. Our research question was: what are UK public and professional stakeholders’ views about the importance of the consent process for IGG when used for serious criminal cases? The methodological approach was interview-based and exploratory. Our analysis identified that all interviewees stressed the importance of consent, though interviewees’ narratives pointed to inadequacies of individual-based consent as an ethical panacea for IGG.

基因谱系数据库对执法机构特别有吸引力，尤其是在美国，它们已经开始聘请谱系学家使用来自身份不明的人类遗骸（自杀、失踪人员）或严重犯罪现场的未知来源的 DNA 对其进行搜索, 分别帮助识别受害者或潜在的犯罪嫌疑人。虽然这种调查性遗传谱系 (IGG) 技术有很大希望，但它的使用——尤其是在严重的刑事调查中——引发了一系列社会和伦理问题。获得遗传谱系数据库用户对 IGG 的同意被认为是解决此类问题的一种方式。虽然在生物医学和法医生物银行文献中充分记录了对同意重要性的批评，但 IGG 尚未对此进行探讨。我们试图通过探讨英国利益相关者的观点来弥补这一差距。我们的研究问题是：当 IGG 用于严重刑事案件时，英国公众和专业利益相关者对 IGG 同意程序的重要性有何看法？方法论是基于访谈的和探索性的。我们的分析表明，所有受访者都强调同意的重要性，