The Future of DNA Testing

There's an interesting story on Yahoo/Reuters about the effort of local police to DNA test every male resident of a Cape Cod town to solve a 3 yera-old murder case. While the testing is voluntary, police have said that they will pay close attention to those who refuse. The body of the murder victim, Christa Worthington, was discovered in 2002, at her Truro MA, home with her 2-year-old toddler at her side. No leads are active in the case. Predictably, the ACLU is upset,

"This is a particularly insidious form of coercion because it attaches a penalty to the assertion of one's constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches," Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

"There are many legitimate privacy reasons why an innocent person may not agree to a DNA test."

In a letter to local prosecutors and police, Rose's group urged a halt to the "DNA dragnet," calling it a "serious intrusion" on personal privacy.

The letter raised questions about the possibility that samples may be entered into a state or federal DNA database without donors' knowledge or consent and questioned whether the effort would be worth the cost, which it estimated at $80,000.

Moreover, the letter cited a University of Nebraska study released last year that concluded that DNA sweeps of possible criminal suspects are "extremely unproductive."

What would the reasons for keeping one's DNA secret in this situation possibly be?

- posted by Base10 @ 4:08 PM