Police and the public prosecution department may be given access to dna samples held by hospitals for research purposes, Nos television reported on Friday.

The broadcaster says the health ministry has discussed the idea with health professionals but a spokesman for health minister Edith Schippers denies draft legislation has already been drawn up.
Although the initial plans would limit research to serious crimes, such as murder and rape, academics fear it will be expanded and patients will stop cooperating with research projects, Nos says.
The national doctors’ association KNMG says the move is an effort to create a national data base. Hospitals currently hold human tissue from around one million people for research purposes, Nos says.
At the moment, only people suspected of crimes with a jail sentence of at least four years have to hand over dna. The Dutch forensic institute data bank now contains the dna of 11,000 people.
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