Dna
... DNA databases spark unease On October 13, 1998, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI; Washington, DC) inaugurated the National DNA Index System (NDIS), a database that the bureau claims will speed both the apprehension of the guilty and the release of the wrongly accused. While conceding that DNA fingerprint databases are valuable tools for modern law enforcement, some lawyers and ethicists are concerned that the system lacks appropriate safeguards against abuse. All 50 states have passed legislation permitting the creation of statewide DNA fingerprint databases, and 42 of them have already begun storing records. Eventually, NDIS will permit comparisons between state databases, which include DNA samples collected from crime scenes as well as the DNA profiles of convicted criminals. ... Howard Safir, New York City police commissioner, recently suggested that DNA fingerprints become standard in all arrests, an arrangement similar to that now employed by Britains Forensic Science Service (London). New Yorks mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, went a step further by recommending automatic DNA profiling of all children at birth3. Even without DNA fingerprinting at birth, the current system raises ethical concerns. ... [The police] would still retain your blood samples for [future] DNA profiles. ... Paul Bresson, a spokesperson for the FBI, points out that records from elimination profiles are not included in NDIS, since federal law only permits DNA profiling of convicted offenders. But Bresson concedes that "if a state passes a law that allows them to collect DNA upon arrest, they can keep those [samples] on the state level," and that localities are permitted to save DNA from elimination profiles. ... " Besides being new, DNA profiling touches more directly on personal privacy than conventional fingerprints. In addition to the DNA profile in the database, states also save the original DNA samples, raising the possibility that they could be subjected to additional types of analysis in the future, possibly including genetic studies of criminal behavior4. ... The DNA of all newborn children should be taken and stored in a huge ID database, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist suggests.