Spread of DNA databases sparks ethical concerns

pioneer press ^ | 7-13-13 | Jill Lawless

[TurboZamboni]

LONDON — You can ditch your computer and leave your cellphone at home, but you can't escape your DNA.

It belongs uniquely to you — and, increasingly, to the authorities.

Countries around the world are collecting genetic material from millions of citizens in the name of fighting crime and terrorism — and, according to critics, heading into uncharted ethical terrain.

Leaders include the United States — where the Supreme Court recently backed the collection of DNA swabs from suspects on arrest — and Britain, where police held samples of almost 7 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, until a court-ordered about-face saw the incineration of a chunk of the database.

[Drango]

I have taken multiple oaths where I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;

I also gave them my fingerprints. They now have my DNA. Big (non)deal.

[Burkean]

When I lived in Hawaii for two years to get a doctorate at UH I needed state ID other than my campus one. Since I didn’t take a car with me I just got the state ID, for which I had to give my fingerprints. That was over 25 years ago and it hasn’t caused a problem for me. But I live my life far away from the line between legal and illegal, so I doubt I have never had to worry that I might be engulfed in an investigation because of my associations

[TurboZamboni]

I’d argue that a fingerprint does not contain information on heredity, propensity to disease, and all of the defining information of one’s physical composition. So, NOT really similar.

[BenLurkin]

The global hierarchy considers ethics to be bourgeoisie and counter-revolutionary.

[YHAOS]

Science says;
If it can be done, do it.

[microgood]

I also gave them my fingerprints. They now have my DNA. Big (non)deal.

The problem is not the DNA, but the DNA databases. Since they contain many records of partial DNA, there are a lot of false positives. People have been arrested on the West Coast for crimes committed in states they have never been in until they realized what happened. The odds of an error in complete DNA match is one in many millions, but it is in the one in thousands in DNA databases.

[a fool in paradise]

Cops in Boston followed a relative of the Boston Strangler to his job, and pilfered a used plastic water bottle to collect a DNA sample without warrant.

They say it “proves” that the Boston Strangler (who’d already confessed to the crimes) was guilty (he was not tried for the murders).

Meanwhile someone who did not participate in those decades old crimes has now been added to the police’s DNA database file. Wonderful.

[TurboZamboni]

interesting they can use DNA to free people on “death row”, but it doesn’t seem good enough to ever execute someone in a timely manner...

[Myrddin]

It’s a better tool for exclusion than positive ID.

[Katya]

I imagine increasing number of people are sending their DNA to companies like ancestry.com as well. Considering the feds have a backdoor to everything...