I know that there has been someone hear who voiced a strong opinion about DNA testing babies at birth....can't rememeber who that was. To that person, and anyone else who wants to comment....
Why are you opposed to this? I respect right to privacy, but can there be grave errors in this matching? Personally, if I'm not guilty of a crime, I can't imagine why I would ever care that I had given my DNA at birth. I also think that this could cause people to think twice before commiting crimes.
My son is pursuing a career with the FBI. He did a research paper on a city which I beleive was in Canada. They took a video of every license plate entering and leaving town. His paper was about our right to privacy. I guess I don't understand how that infringes on my privacy, if I didn't do anything wrong? It's not an inconvenience to me. Now, I can understand if people want to just randomly come in and check my computer and read every private e-mail, or follow me all over town with a video camera where I may do something legal, but yet embarrasing (like being a man, which I'm not, going to an adult bookstore or something)....but general videos and/or testing babies' DNA? I don't understand why that's a problem. Please enlighten me and I truly ask that respectfully b/c I'm curious. TIA
I am one person who opposes it.
The general principle is that unless I have committed a crime, don't treat me like a criminal. It degrades both of us to live that way.
There are so many ways in which personal information can be used and misused that it's hard for me to pick one post-sized example. Take the following as just a few of literally hundreds of ways this can go wrong.
Think of the latest in forensic DNA testing, touch DNA. Now imagine that you are shopping for a hoodie and you're looking for a particular design (sports team, clever saying or whatever). You sort through several racks of hoodies, leaving your skin cells on every one.
Now imagine that someone buys one of those hoodies you touched and is wearing it when they become the victim of a violent crime. LE tests the hoodie for touch DNA and bingo! there's your DNA right there.
Now let's say that you were home asleep at the time of the crime. What happens if the victim then ID's you as the assailant? At the very least, you're going to spend some very unpleasant hours with the officer(s) investigating the crime. At worst, you could be charged, convicted and jailed for many years.
Another way DNA registry could go wrong: security of the databank. Many large organisations, from private companies to the federal government, have been hacked and had the private information of literally millions of people compromised.
Right now, DNA technology can only reveal a comparative handful of things about a person. As time and research go forward, what can be determined solely via DNA will increase.
So, let's say that you have the gene for Huntington's Disease, an untreatable and incurable neurological condition that invariably kills the person; onset is anywhere from early 20s to middle 40s, depending on how many copies of the defective part of the gene the person has.
Think anyone but the person who has the gene wouldn't be interested? Think again. For instance, there are insurance companies that would be willing to pay for a database of names of people who have the Huntington's gene, so that they can set the premiums higher for those people.
How about when DNA can predict who is highly pre-disposed for a common condition such as arthritis or diabetes? The Wall Street debacle revealed that big companies have no better ethics than what are actively and vigorously enforced.
Another scenario: let's say you decide you're tired of politics as usual in your city or your county or your state. You're opponent finds out that you are pre-disposed to heart attacks and diabetes, then uses that information to start questioning the state of your health. They use surveillance methods to make footage of your once-weekly excursions to ice cream parlours and pizza joints with friends to support the insinuation that you won't live to finish out your term.