DNA Fingerprinting for All! 

Reuters Page 1 of 1

01:46 PM Apr. 23, 2003 PT

LONDON -- Everyone should be DNA fingerprinted to help tackle crime 
and enhance personal security, the British inventor of the modern 
forensic technique suggested 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 2 million 
profiles in the U.K.," 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 
were 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.  

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Source: Wired News - http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58600,00.html


Cheers, Steve..

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