Lie detection service in the works
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-29 01:13

People may not be legally allowed to put their spouses or business partners through a lie detector test yet, but new services offered by the Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital may work just as well.

In March, judicial departments gave the green light for the Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital to open its judicial authentication office to the public. The office is believed to be the first of its kind in Guangdong Province.

The office will offer legal medical tests to the public, including such services as testing for material evidence or mental disease, said Chen Ruizhen, the office's director.

The office is also offering added services such as parenthood tests and checking testimony.

To date, however, public access to lie detectors is part of the package only when mental illness is concerned.

"Using the lie detector is just part of the legal medical test of mental disease in the office," said Chen.

Legal medical testimony for mental illness, which uses lie detection technology, is currently reserved for mental patients, said Chen.

"For example, people could directly bring forward requests for detection to discover whether they have suffered mental problems," said Chen.

In the past, mental patients would only be tested after orders from judicial departments, said Chen.

Another problem is that fees have not been worked out.

"As a result, everything about the lie detection service is still under preparation," said Chen.

Still, the hospital is hoping to get the service approved soon.

In the past, lie detectors have only been used for expert testimony in relation to law enforcement.

The results of the lie test depend on the questions asked by the experts and the analysis of the data.

With the data, the expert is able to discover whether the person who undergoes the test is lying or not, Chen said.

But some experts said the public use of a lie detection service would create many problems.

Chen said the test must be taken voluntarily and her office will offer the service to customers only if both parties to a dispute agree.

"Although the lie detector is still not available to the public and everything is tentative at this stage, we have used the lie detecting technique in areas of civil disputes, such as divorce affairs," Chen said.

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