Walter Watts
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virus: Scientist: Everyone Should Be DNA Fingerprinted
« on: 2003-04-23 15:38:46 » |
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Scientist: Everyone Should Be DNA Fingerprinted
Apr 23, 2:39 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Everyone should be DNA fingerprinted to help tackle
crime and enhance personal security, the British inventor of the modern
forensic technique suggested on Wednesday. Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys,
of the department of genetics at the University of Leicester, said
existing criminal DNA databases were too small to catch criminal
suspects.
"At the moment, we have a criminal DNA database of about two million
profiles in the UK," he told reporters as scientists met at Britain's
top scientific body, the Royal Society, to celebrate the discovery of
DNA 50 years ago.
"The real problem in a typical crime is that even if you get DNA from a
crime scene, you can't pick up a suspect because they don't have a
record, so one possibility is to extend the database to include the
entire population."
Jeffreys said he would feel "very uncomfortable" if such a database was
run by the police.
"That would give entirely the wrong perception. But I would certainly be
in favor of a database like that being established by a quite
independent agency."
The database would carry a person's individual DNA profile and would
certify their identity. "So it is not just a criminal investigation
database but a personal security and assurance database as well," he
said.
DNA fingerprinting -- from the tiniest of human specimens -- is already
widely used in criminal investigations, paternity testing and to help
settle applications for immigration, affecting the lives of thousands of
people in a way Sherlock Holmes could not have dreamed possible.
The technique was developed in 1984 by Jeffreys after he noticed the
existence of certain sequences of DNA that do not contribute to the
function of a gene are repeated within the gene and in other genes of a
DNA sample.
In most cases it provides an accuracy of identification in the tens to
hundreds of millions to one. Its use has trapped perpetrators but has
also exonerated the innocent who might otherwise have been found guilty
due to circumstantial evidence.
--
Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!"
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