Approaching ethical, legal and social issues of emerging forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) technologies comprehensively: Reply to 'Forensic DNA phenotyping: Predicting human appearance from crime scene material for investigative purposes' by Manfred Kayser.

In a recent special issue of the journal on new trends in forensic genetics, Manfred Kayser contributed a review of developments, opportunities and challenges of forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP). In his article he argues that FDP technologies – such as determining eye, hair and skin color – should be considered as akin to a “biological witness” with the potential of providing more accurate information than traditional eye witnesses [1]...In this letter, we add some of these missing dimensions to the proposals made by Kayser, embedding our response to his paper into a wider discourse of forensic genetics studies, and addressing the wider community of forensic geneticists, practitioners and policy makers.

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