Dna Database

For over a decade, there has been a controversial issue dealing with building a national DNA database. This issue has been brought up over the discussion of the actual database and what kinds of effects will come out of it, if it actually happens to go through. Some people think the database will be a force in crime fighting. Others think it is a violation of civil liberties. In the early 1900s, “fingerprinting,” a new crime-fighting database, was developed. With the exception of identical twins, no two people have the same fingerprints. Every person who was arrested was fingerprinted, and those fingerprints were inserted into the FBI computer database. This database holds over 40 million fingerprints and this system is still used today. In 1984, a different forensic system developed that compared actual DNA profiles instead of fingerprints. In this day and age, all 50 states maintain a DNA database. Technology has become so advanced, that the slightest trace of any human individual can be used to create a DNA profile (DNA). All of this has been the start to the controversial issue of building up a national DNA database, with a DNA profile of literally every single American born into the United States. As more bills are passed to build the databases, this problem keeps developing. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) has been under great discussion since about 1995. Basically, this is a bill that prohibits insurance companies and employers to actually take action against an individual through their DNA, using the power of the government (Alston). The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act, which grants money to healthcare providers to collect genetic DNA to the state, is also a policy that has been proposed in the past to help this issue along. While some argue that these policies and the national database are violations on human rights, others like the idea of a national DNA database, claiming that the United States would be a safer

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