dna samples

[RALLYMARK]

opinions about giving dna and fingerprint samples please.
if we all gave dna and fingerprint samples on our 16th birthday to be held on a database then how many crimes (rape / murder in particular) could be solved very quickly and if dna found at the scene didn't come up on the database it would narrow the search down to the under 16s or illegals

[jake-the-peg]

Are you kidding? They can't keep the information they have on you secure at the moment!

They can't give you a new DNA code like a new credit card number if it gets into the wrong hands you know!

[Reverandfunk]

So when a member of Jakes family is the victim of a serious crime and a load of DNA is left he would be okay with the guilty party getting away with it because a DNA database is so dangerous in the wrong hands.

[Oneeyedvic]

Reverandfunk - yes a good idea - and hopefully this way lenders can get the toerags who stop paying their bills, change their names and run off.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Business-and-Fi nance/Question451721.html

[Reverandfunk]

Vic so glad your life is full of intersting things to do.

Sad

[Oneeyedvic]

why am I sad? For having a memory on another question that I posted?

You are the one who wants a DNA database - I am showing you how it can be misused.

I am guessing that you don't want to pay back the �40,000 you defrauded?

Interesting how you want criminals to be caught but don't want fraudsters to be caught.

And I am the sad one?

[jake-the-peg]

Let me explain a little more about why this is a bad idea.

Firstly lets say you take a taxi - then a passenger or two later kills the driver.

The police find your DNA in the cab - but no match to the killer ( say he's a foreigner here legally on a passport)

All of a sudden you're a main suspect and are having to prove where you are what you were doing etc.

So much for innocent until proven guilty.

Another example, right now it's already possible to analyse people's DNA for susceptibility to inherited diseases. This will increase in the coming years.

You yourself Mark might even carry a marker making you highly likely to develop cancer in your 50s.

If I can get hold of a large section of the DNA database I might be able to find such people and blackmail them - fancy a letter threatening to tell your lovely fiance that if she marry's you her children are likely to be genetically deficient?

20 years ago the idea electronic fraud was as rare as hens teeth today it's commonplace.

Genetic information is set to be a boom development area in coming years and once you set up and force a National Database there's no going back!

As for Reverand Funk's emotive appeal to my family - I think the odds of anyone murdering my family is remote enough and the odds of it being a total stranger who's never been on the existing database is even more remote.

I doubt one such case happens a year - I'm much more likely to win the lottery.

I'm certainly not about to walk into a Big Brother state because the Reverand is scared of bogeymen

[China Doll]

I would not be an advocate for this as there have been so many c 0ck ups with the IT systems in the public/goverment sectors recently that it just would not be secure.

I also don't trust that the date would not be misused, selling on to insurance companies etc... Jake's covered most examples on this that I could think of myself!

So no. Not a fan of this idea.