Tag Archives: DNA fingerprinting

On popular science and technology website Singularity Hub i found interesting article. It shows that as of July2011 13 states in US collect DNA samples from anyone who gets arrested. It highlightens the usefulness of this practice and even gives example of the case when murderer was found because police had his DNA after he was arrested for felony. Of course DNA profiling can serve many good causes, but the fact that it gets so widespread and used on virtually anyone, makes me personally, very uncomfortable.

Lets say you get arrested because you happened to be out late at night and crime was committed nearby. You will be released from police department within couple hours, but your DNA sample will be stored in their system. Of course, as a law obeying citizen you have nothing to worry about. That’s from the side of law enforcement agencies, but in the age of computer hacking there may be criminals who can use your precious information. If Wiki Leaks could access information from top secret government websites, where is guarantee that your DNA code won’t be stolen from police databases and used for anything from fraud to faking of your criminal records. Article hints on the problem by saying that widespread DNA screening practice “raises serious concerns about who has access to potentially incriminating DNA information stored in databases”.

Another thing with databases is that there may be mistakes. Article mentions that society and courts put a lot of weight on DNA identification. Therefore, given the level of trust that courts are putting into DNA identification, one may be convicted wrongfully because of the faulty entry in DNA police database.

Now whether the fact that so many states use DNA profiling on anyone who is arrested serves for public good or not is up to you to decide.