EU court clears path for man seeking DNA test on buried father

(CN) — Trying to prove who your father was doesn’t have to stop at the border, Europe’s highest court ruled Thursday, clearing the way for a body buried in France to be exhumed for DNA testing ordered by an Italian court.

A man identified only as “xx” wants a court in Genoa to recognize him as the biological son of a man buried in France, allow him to use the man’s surname and update the civil record. After the deceased man’s recognized children declined to provide DNA samples and instead requested testing on their father’s remains, the Italian court ordered an exhumation and asked a court in Chambéry, France, to carry it out.

France generally treats disturbing a person’s remains for DNA testing as off limits unless the deceased gave express consent while alive, reflecting its strong legal protections for the dignity of the dead. The French court asked whether those rules allowed it to turn down Italy’s request under European Union law.

The Court of Justice of the European Union said it could not. Judges hearing the underlying dispute decide what evidence they need under their own country’s law, while the court in the other member state is responsible only for carrying out the requested procedure.

“The requesting court, before which a dispute on a civil or commercial matter having a cross-border effect has been brought, is the sole court authorised to decide on which means of evidence it considers relevant,” the judges wrote.

EU rules allow requests to be refused only in a handful of narrowly defined situations. National courts cannot create additional exceptions by relying on their own substantive laws, even where those laws reflect fundamental principles such as respect for the dead.

The judges also said it was for the Italian court, not the French one, to ensure the exhumation complied with fundamental rights. Under the EU’s system of mutual trust, France must generally assume Italy has properly balanced those rights unless truly exceptional circumstances exist.

In the ruling, the panel also recognizes the right to private and family life includes knowing and legally establishing one’s parentage. Citing European human rights case law, the judges said discovering one’s biological origins forms an important part of personal identity, even though that interest must still be weighed against respect for the deceased and other competing interests.

Sabrina Praduroux, an assistant professor of comparative law and human rights at the University of Turin, said the court strengthened cross-border judicial cooperation while deliberately sidestepping a more difficult constitutional question.

“The judgment is noteworthy as it marks the first time the EU court has explicitly recognised the right to know one’s genetic origins as falling within the protection of the fundamental right to respect for private and family life,” she said.

Rather than breaking new legal ground, Praduroux said, the court largely follows established European human rights case law. More striking, in her view, is what the judges chose not to decide. By leaving the meaning of human dignity after death unresolved, they postponed a debate that is likely to return as disputes emerge over genetic data, digital legacies and AI systems capable of recreating deceased people.

Genetics experts see the case through a different lens.

Martina Cornel, vice president of the European Society of Human Genetics and professor of community genetics and public health genomics at Amsterdam UMC, said the judgment reflects a broader shift in genetics toward recognizing that DNA often matters to entire families, not just individuals.

She noted the exhumation request came only after the deceased man’s children declined to provide their own DNA, even though that less invasive option could have avoided disturbing the grave.

“The judgment seems to be in line with this interest of family members,” Cornel said.

Cornel said post-mortem genetic testing can reveal inherited conditions that may affect surviving relatives, and European genetics experts have long supported sharing medically relevant information from deceased family members when it could benefit living relatives.

The applicant’s lawyer and the French government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The court’s interpretation is final and cannot be appealed. The ruling does not determine whether the applicant is the deceased man’s son, but clears the way for the French court to execute the exhumation request before the parentage proceedings continue in Genoa.

Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.