Debates around UK National DNA Database

There is a debate in the UK at the moment about the creation of an expanded National DNA database. Currently, anyone arrested has to submit a DNA sample to the police, and this sample is entered into a national database. At first glance, this doesn't seem too crazy - a bit more advanced than other countries, perhaps, but not immediately ridiculous. When you start to learn more about the DNA database, though, it raises a lot of questions. I'm not sure if I'm in favor of the DNA national database or not.

For example, the DNA sample is kept on the national database forever. This includes samples from people who are found innocent, and even those who are never even charged by the police. One of the current debates is about expanding the group of people who have to submit a DNA sample. Currently, someone has to be taken into police custody before their DNA is entered into the database. There are proposals to take DNA samples from people who have committed minor offenses, such as being stopped for speeding. That suddenly starts to seem slightly weird.

If we step back for a moment, what's the big deal with taking DNA samples from everyone? After all - if you don't do anything wrong, why should you be afraid? The police already take fingerprints from everyone taken into custody and keep the fingerprints on file for ever. If there's a break-in at your home and police find fingerprints, they sometimes can tie those back to someone previously arrested. Isn't DNA just another step in that process?

One big concern around DNA samples and building up a national DNA database is that a person's DNA can tell you a lot more than uniquely identify a person. DNA could be used to predict disease risk, to identify blood relatives, and to perhaps even clone you in the future. Does it now start to sound a bit more scary?

There are a few interesting points to note. Iceland is one of the few countries that has an extremely isolated gene pool - so much so, that the DNA of the average Islandic person today is extremely similar to those of his Viking ancestors a thousand years ago. In late 1999, the government passed a law allowing the creation of a national DNA database - of EVERY person in the country. The explicit purpose was to provide a pure and comprehensive DNA database, used to identify and isolate genes that cause specific diseases. Since the gene pool was so pure, individual genes causing diseases would be a lot easier to identify. (Interesting article about the Icelandic DNA Database.)

But back to the debate around a UK national DNA database. There are privacy concerns (the government seems to lose personal data at an alarming rate), and concerns over how the data might be used in the future. One option might be to encode the data such that it loses its DNA characteristics and is only able to be used to identify another sample for matching purposes. Of course, this would require trust that the sampling authority actually destroys the original sample after encoding it.

It would also mean that near-match searching probably wouldn't be possible. With a full DNA sample, police can carry out a search for a perfect match (meaning the person is uniquely identified), or can search for near-matches, which would typically indicate a close blood relative that could be used to further investigate in the hopes of finding the actual suspect.

Some interesting links:

• UK Home Office - National DNA Database
• Calls for all UK residents to be on the National DNA database
• Wikipedia UK DNA Database article
• Search the web for more on the DNA Database

On a random note, when researching the Iceland information, the DNA article I linked to was all professional, and full of good information. Towards the end of the article, there’s a comment that says that the author tried his best (but failed) to contribute to Iceland’s gene pool himself, and he provides a link to a page about his Iceland experience with women.  That second page is GREAT and I can’t even tell if it’s serious or not.  It’s full of his descriptions of every Icelandic girl he’s ever known, and full of comments that just make me laugh out loud.  Here are a few examples: "I did not leave behind any babies in Iceland. I did not develop that proclivity until years later"; "Several people have asked me why I have included the photo of Gerard Bannon in this collection. There are two important reasons... Jerry fell under the tow bar of an Icelandic Airlines DC-8 at JFK Airport and was run over and killed. At the time of this tragic accident, Jerry was involved in a dispute with me concerning an Icelandic girl. I have always felt deeply sorry about this." Is that serious at all?

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