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|11.22.04 @ 3:08PM|#
I like Alec Jeffreys' suggestion that DNA database "should include every citizen"
If we're all in the database, then we're all suspects, eliminating the stimga and helping police work. Also, I would suggest we blind police from pulling identies from the database without a court order.
|11.22.04 @ 3:13PM|#
Ronald,
Have you ever met a science project you didn't like?
|11.22.04 @ 3:29PM|#
So what happens with a criminal who drops a sack of barber hair all over a crime scene. Seems like there'd be a lot of DNA contamination. :)
|11.22.04 @ 3:39PM|#
Can't the government forcing people to yield a DNA sample be seen as a violation of privacy and perhaps an unreasonable search and seizure as well, because some physical and mental disorders are indicated in DNA?
Ronald Bailey|11.22.04 @ 4:01PM|#
Rick Barton: Currently DNA profiles are based on polymorphisms in non-coding parts of a person's genome--in other words, the information is only good for identifying people, but doesn't tell you anything about their genes. Of course, this could change, and then there might be a problem.
RandyAyn: I guess the simple answer to your question is "hardly ever." Obviously I find technology to be one of the greatest expressions of human creativity and, not incidentally, the best way to lift billions of people out of our "natural state" of abject poverty. Most science projects are pretty fascinating in the sense they provide us with more information about the nature of our universe and thus give us the more possibilities to exercise human creativity. That being said, some projects are pretty wasteful and dangerous, e.g. the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, nerve gases, the hydrogen economy and weaponized anthrax.
|11.22.04 @ 4:46PM|#
Yep, there goes the 5th amendment. Can`t you hear them wipping their asses with the Constitution and the big flush with your rights going down into the cess pool.
|11.22.04 @ 5:17PM|#
Ronald Bailey,
Supplying the West Virginia DMV with a fingerprint is voluntary. After a polite stab at it, "for your protection", a license will be issued either way. My question what it is supposed to protect me from, is usually answered "from fraud" and my question if any bank or store has ever asked the clerk to check her fingerprint against the one on her license, is met with silence. So I'm not sure what the idea is. I'll ask my State Rep.
Ronald Bailey|11.22.04 @ 5:30PM|#
Hydroman: Do you also think that fingerprinting suspects flushes the 4th and 5th amendments down the toilet? Just curious.
|11.22.04 @ 5:40PM|#
Bailey,
Yes,unless they are voluntary.
|11.22.04 @ 5:51PM|#
The burden of proof is on the "State" , within the bounds of the Constitution and all of it`s amendments.
|11.22.04 @ 9:17PM|#
Would you find it acceptible if the state offered to pay people to volunteer DNA samples?
Sam|11.22.04 @ 11:00PM|#
The problem is not loss of privacy, but growth of state power.
Some people may fear that government snoops will find out they are smoking pot (for instance), get rid of prohibition and that problem becomes a not. Same with many other problems of state power and privacy.
I don't see that loss of privacy can be reversed, stopped, or even slowed very much, that leaves the necessity of dealing with state power and ubiquity.
|11.23.04 @ 1:20AM|#
Sam for president.
|11.23.04 @ 9:25AM|#
Ron, what happens to my DNA when I give blood? I've asked the Red Cross this question, but they get evasive and don't reply.
I presume the Red Cross sells my blood, a hospital pumps it into someone, and when that someone bleeds out at a crime scene, his DNA and my DNA show up.
|11.23.04 @ 10:18AM|#
"The problem is not loss of privacy, but growth of state power."
Exactly.
Remember, the Government wanted the Patriot Act to protect us all from terrorism. Sure enough, they are using it in the majority of cases for ordinary criminal investigations. Can't find the link to the statistics any more.
It's pretty unrealistic to expect powers to be used only "the way they were intended" to be used.
|11.23.04 @ 11:33AM|#
martin for vice president.
|11.23.04 @ 12:41PM|#
Ayatollah Usoe: If your donated blood ends up in a crimal's vein, it will only stay in his veins while the red blood cells are alive. After a while, your red blood cells will die and he'll make new cells with his own DNA to replace them. There is a small chance that he will commit a crime and bleed at the crime soon after leaving the hospital, but this is unlikely, because he would probably be recovering from surgery at the time. Even then, only a small portion of the DNA in the blood would be yours. So, while there is a chance your DNA would show up with the criminals, it is small.
All: If we create a national DNA data base, we will have to adjust the way we look at DNA evidence. DNA finger prints are traits just like hair and eye color. There are so many possible DNA finger prints that the chances of two random people having the same finger print are near zero. However, if you do a search for a DNA finger print in a national data base, you will come up with a few people who match the finger print even thought most of them were not at the scene of the crime. As an anology, think of another trait, height. It is rare to find someone with the same height as you, but there are millions of Americans who are 5'10".
If someone from another country who is not in the data base commits a crime. Police could do a search through a national data base and find several Americans who match the DNA finger print at the crime. However the criminal won't be in that list. If they assume that one of those people has to be the criminal, they will send the wrong person to jail.
|11.23.04 @ 5:37PM|#
FYI: Red blood cells do not contain nuclear DNA, further reducing the risk of false matches from blood transfusion.
False positives: I believe the DNA fingerprinting method is theoretically able to distinguish all people except identical twins, with the chance of a mismatch being very small. However, knowing how many double hits there actually are out there would no doubt be a boon for criminal defense and for justice in general.