How would you feel about your DNA being kept on a national database?

My DNA is held on the UK national database, a couple years ago I was the first to arrive on the scene of a murder (long story) and the police took a DNA sample so they could eliminate me from their enquiries, when they took it they asked if I wanted it to be kept or not in their database, I said they may as well keep it as if anything ever happened to me in the future it may help.

That is a good idea, and you better have a good explanation for everywhere you have been.

It’s too creepy and Big Brother-ish for me. It’s bad enough that I have fingerprints on record. DNA is too much. If they really want my DNA badly enough for something in the future, I’m sure they could find some source in my apartment somewhere when that time comes.

@ChazMaz Heh, quite so.

It can also implicate an innocent. If I am a devious killer or as serial rapist, I might just drop some hairs from the garbage of a hair saloon.

Something like this must be considered from every angle. Once there is a national database like this, it will hardly be undone. When then will all the databases globally be connected?

A problem in the same neighborhood, that is a reality today, is that it is possible for others to patent your DNA.

In my country they keep DNA from criminals that has committed a criminal offense that gives a minimum 6 months of prison. I think that is reasonable.

@oratio May I ask what country you are from?

This is a difficult issue because there is the Invasion of Privacy thing vs. the Victim’s rights thing.

In California, a law was passed to collect DNA from all criminals, minor and major. I was against this. If someone is caught doing a victimless crime, nobody needs his DNA.

Since that law was passed, though, a lot of really bad people have been caught due to it. I’m talking about predators here. Victims have received justice, whereas otherwise they wouldn’t.

I think DNA collection can be appropriate… but we need to overhaul our entire legal system on every level… to treat criminals according to the crimes they’ve committed. DNA collection is a great tool, but it only works under an honest and intelligent government.

And so long as there’s laws against victimless crimes, we’ll have a government that is less-than-honest and less-than-intelligent.

If America and the States clean up their acts… they can intelligently encroach on privacy so long as the only people they’re looking for really are bad people.

@Leanne1986 Sweden.

I thought this was already done in the US. I know they take samples of blood from newborns, and I forget the reason. I remember reading it was some sort of database thing. Didn’t really bother me.

It doesn’t bother me any. I suspect there would be fewer John Does and more frequently just court decisions.

@casheroo Yes, it seems they do this in most countries. Its for medicinal purposes, to look for inherited diseases as well as for research and statistics. They plan to connect the the bio banks of the EU together, into a single one. However, the access to these bio banks are very restricted and is not open to the police or any other institution. They might be in the long run, and this is the reason I had my sons blood sample destroyed.

I wouldn’t mind if it would save even one life. They have solved so many cold cases since they started doing this and freed so many wrongly convicted people.

I think if there was a guarantee that it wouldn’t be used for anything other than identifying people involved in crimes, then I would have no problem with a database full of everyone’s DNA and fingerprints. However, I’m worried that this system would be abused so I am not in favor of it.

I don’t like it because I don’t want the government creating a clone army of Mes like in Star Wars. Or any other horrible clone experiments. Don’t think they wont try it!

The thought of documenting everyone’s DNA makes me uncomfortable. I was also uncomfortable with getting fingerprinted for my drivers license. But the thing is, as much as I don’t like it, I’m not sure that I think its wrong. As I understand it the right to privacy is very poorly defined in the US. I think the only mention of it is forbidding wire tapping and such not without probable cause.

If they pursue the issue in the US I hope they pin down the right to privacy better whatever they end up doing.

I guess I need to do some thinking about what the scope and limits of the right to privacy should be.

You’re already being monitored.
The interesting thing is that we all watch each other more than the government does.
Thanks to youtube your worst moment in life, will likely be captured by someone with a small camera and broadcast to everyone.

Knee-jerk reaction: I don’t like it.
After some thought: I don’t see why not, as long as the information is never used for any other purpose than solving crimes. I would hate to be denied a job or health insurance on the basis of some finding in my DNA.

Who watches the watchers? I’m against this. Here in the UK there has been such an erosion of our rights to privacy over the past few years that we might as well be living in the pages of 1984. In order for a database to work, we’d have to have enormous faith in the people responsible for keeping it safe and using the information responsibly. The powers that be in this country have proved time and again that they are not worthy of this trust, with people’s data being lost and sold (as in the T Mobile customers details).

@bunnygrl I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have seen on the news that a laptop has been stolen that has thousands of personal details on it. Just who is giving these idiots the responsibility to look after these things? Once is a mistake but more than that is very very worrying. I live in the UK too btw

@Leanne1986 Hubby is a civil servant, and was on the train a while back with a colleague (they were travelling down south to a work related wotnot)and his colleague nudged him and looked towards the traveller sitting across the table on the train from them. Hubby looked across to see the other passenger staring out the window and there were several folders, one folder was lying open on the table in front of him. The open folder contained appealants (sp?) papers (the other passenger was clearly a civil servant also) so hubby coughed to get the mans attention, then told him that he should put the papers away if he wasn’t working on them, since the person involved probubly wouldn’t like strangers seeing all their business. The man said to hubby it didn’t matter because “nobody’s interested” . The man did put all of the folders back into his briefcase though. Later the man got up to leave the train, and hubby had to remind him about his briefcase. He’d got up to leave without it. As you say honey, it is extremely worrying. Thats why I don’t trust the UK govt with anything more than I have to. If ID cards are indeed voluntary, I won’t be having one. It’s a senseless waste of money anyway. How mush rubbish do we have in our purses with our details on it? we don’t need yet another bit of tat. hugs xx