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The bone test method "does not allow a clear distinction between 16 and 18 years," estimated the National Academy of Medicine in 2007. RFI / Olivier Favier

In France, is the use of bone tests to determine the age of a minor legal? This practice is very used by the administration to know if a migrant is minor or not is also very contested by the associations who have therefore seized the Constitutional Council. The hearing will take place on Tuesday morning before the highest French court. They are criticized for their lack of precision.

A radiograph of the hand and wrist left to determine an age: on paper, the procedure is simple, in fact, it is much more complex.

These bone maturity tests, as they are officially named, were indeed conceived in the 1930s and 1940s in the United States. At the time, a great deal of data was collected on the bone quality of a large population of adolescents. The objective is to draw significant statistics. This made it possible to diagnose stunting in a young person. For that we looked at the radio of her wrist, and we checked if it diverged from the established models.

The problem is that these tests have been misguided. They are now used to get an age. That is why they are challenged: the database was made 80 years ago on a healthy North American population, so it has nothing to do with today's people, mainly migrants of African origin.

Another pitfall is the margin of error: 18 months for 16-18 year olds. On the basis of these tests alone, it is impossible to say with certainty whether a person is a minor or an adult. Therefore, should we trust the bone tests? Science answers no, remains to see what the Constitutional Council will say.

► The lawyer Isabelle Zribi will plead Tuesday before the Constitutional Council for the prohibition of these tests.

[...] the use of these bone tests undermines the protection of children because simply because of the weight they have in the judicial debate, a minor risks being treated as an adult and it is his right to housing, to schooling that are at stake. There are also repercussions on custodial measures ...

Me Isabelle Zribi 11/03/2019 - by Simon Rozé Play

► (Re) read: "In France, the issue of isolated minors is not part of the public debate"