An interesting piece on national DNA registers.. [View All]

[LibLabUK]

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA5A0.htm

Here's the idea: whenever a baby is born, it is given a 'heel-prick' test, which involves taking a tiny sample of blood from the heel to test for certain blood disorders. So why not extract a smidgeon of the baby's DNA from each sample and store it, together with the baby's name, date and place of birth, and parents' names? We would thus have a national register of the DNA of every individual born in this country after a given date. And policemen of the future, when investigating serious crimes where the criminal had left DNA at the scene, could find the culprit's name at the click of a mouse.

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The point of this scheme is not to come over all Daily Mailish about the need for stiff punishments for these evil criminals. Stiff punishments may satisfy people's self-righteous anger, but they are not much use as a deterrent. High probability of detection - that's the real deterrent. The National DNA Register would not cause more criminals to be banged up; it would result in far fewer serious crimes being committed. If we acted now we could make a safer world for our children and grandchildren.

Annnd...discuss.