Re: Re DNA indexing: American Red Cross

den Otter (neosapient@geocities.com)
Fri, 27 Nov 1998 21:42:56 +0100



> From: Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>

> > From: "my inner geek" <geek@ifeden.com>
>
> >A universal identification system based on DNA would be enough to
> >provide a very high level of peace time security.

> It's funny you mentioned this today, just last night on "48 hours"
> they had a piece about national level coordination between states
> that take DNA samples from prisoners. A Florida serial rapist was
> caught by his sample from a Virginia database.

Yes, *of course* it makes perfect sense to index every citizen's DNA and fingerprints (and fortunately this is likely to happen sooner or later). The potential risks are truly insignificant compared to the enormous benefits. Of course, the same goes for national surveillance systems (with databanks) etc. Plain old common sense...I've never really understood the paranoia that seems to grip many people when this subject comes up; it takes *a lot more* to get "1984".