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DNA Profiling – Taking it Further

Positive and/or negative consequences of establishing an international DNA database.

A: Pros:

  • A DNA database covering the entire world’s population, would save massive amounts of police time and help solve crimes and catch criminals faster.
  • The current system – the DNA of all those arrested for recordable offences, guilty or not, is retained – is selective and inefficient because it doesn’t cover the entire population, not even from an entire country, making it much harder to catch a criminal who hasn’t committed previous offenses.
  • Current practice is unfair: ethnic minorities and young people are over-represented, creating resentment and anti-police feeling. Two-in-five black men have their DNA on record, as against fewer than one-in-ten whites.

Cons:

  • Whatever is the utility of DNA samples, it’s weird to enter newborn fingerprints in databases.
  • A national DNA bank would be incredibly expensive and bureaucratic.
  • It would cause fear in between the population against its own government, because some people would feel like they were being controlled and not trusted.
  • DNA information could be abused by corrupt police and others illegally passing information to unauthorised people.
  • You end up being penalized for something you haven’t even done and then you have to submit your DNA to be stored in a database in perpetuity.
Fingerprints done in class to help classifying which kind of fingerprints they were and collection of fingerprints on objects.
Fingerprints done in class to help classifying which kind of fingerprints they were and collection of fingerprints on objects.

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