Posted on 06/28/2013 2:16:59 PM PDT by upchuck
After chewing a piece of gum, you casually toss it in the garbage and think nothing of it. But what if a few days later, a stranger picks up that piece of gum and sequences your DNA using the trace amount of genetic material from the saliva that you’ve left behind? And what if the stranger then takes the information in your genetic code and reconstructs your likeness? Starting to get uncomfortable?
Taking this scenario further, what if you have a genetic predisposition toward a disease or a disorder that you’re unaware of, and suddenly your DNA is in the hands of a stranger who has the potential to expose your personal information to the world? Now you’re a victim. What laws exist to protect your genetic material from being misused? Are they adequate?
These are just a few of the questions that Heather Dewey-Hagborg raises with an art exhibit called “Stranger Visions.” Dewey-Hagborg used genetic analysis and three-dimensional printing technology to produce facial sculptures of anonymous strangers whose DNA she’s collected from chewing gum, cigarette butts, strands of hair, and other items that people have left behind in subways, bathrooms, and other public places around New York City.
“The point isn’t that I can know everything about a person from a piece of chewing gum,” said Dewey-Hagborg, a Ph.D. candidate in electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Rather that I, as an amateur, can know as much as I do and potentially can know a whole lot more.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cen.acs.org ...
or commit crimes and leave your DNA there.
thank God for long range weaponry
If you’ve had a child after about 1999 or 2000, they have that kids DNA. Forever. Even if you ask them to destroy the sample you have no ability determine if they’ve actually done so. It’s taken at birth under the guise of testing for inborn genetic defects. Try to resist it and they threaten you with child services. Ask me how I know that.
And, you have no idea who they’ve given that sample to. Or whether or not identifying information was also given. They’ve already admitted it’s been used for ‘research’. Whose ‘research’ and for what end? Good questions. Let me know if you find the answers on whose research and for what ends.
After my son’s performance at the talent contest where he burped WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE, I think the government threw all my genetic material away.
One day in NYC ...
B.B.: “We found your DNA on this 40 oz Dr. Pepper cup. How do you explain that?”
Lol...impressive. He’s a keeper.
Believe it :)
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