Just Whose DNA Is It, Anyway?

Police have taken warrantless searches to their most invasive extreme with a new technique called the DNA Dragnet, according to the New York Times.

Louisiana police collected DNA mouth swabs from 800 men in their search for the serial killer of four young women. Swabees were told they didn't have to provide the sample, but if they didn't, police would leak their names to the press as "non-cooperative" in the investigation.

The idea actually began in Britain in 1987, when police hunting a rapist tested 4,000 men in Leicestershire. A decade later, and DNA dragnets became all the rage in northern Germany, where more than 16,000 men were tested. In the mid-90s, police in the Miami suburbs netted 2,000 DNA samples in a case. Five years ago, law enforcement authorities in Maryland swabbed 400 makes hospital workers looking for a rapist-killer.

Cops collecting and screening large samples of DNA to catch felons? So what could be wrong with that?

The first thought that comes to Ed.'s mind is: Are the DNA samples and genetic information of innocent men and women removed from these databases once the guilty party has been arrested and convicted?

Answer: No.

Ok. Then Ed. ponders the formation of a National DNA Database, with DNA taken from every American at birth and used solely to aid in identifying criminals? Sound like a good idea?

If you like the notion, YOU can be among the first to submit YOUR children to this DNA Dragnet.