A chemist examines a mixture in her laboratory. Forensic science utilizes many different skill sets.
Have you ever wondered what is included in an FBI background check? I know I have. The information they include is very mundane but maybe in a few years it will include information about your DNA. Our ability to understand DNA has grown by leaps and bounds and today there are several databases that store data on ancient DNA samples collected from around the world. It’s all very exciting if you happen to be a scientist, but what if you are a criminal?
I can imagine several scenarios in which governments might want to collect DNA samples from career criminals, known terrorists, and people with deadly, incurable diseases. Although I don’t know of any such collection processes I am sure that civil libertarians would be up in arms if someone proposed doing this.
But what if the so-called Zombie Apocalypse were really to happen? If all of humanity were threatened by a virulent disease that transformed people into maniacal zombies, don’t you think people would be checking each other for traces of infection? I am sure that a DNA database would be useful in such a situation, especially if there were people with DNA that made them resistant to the disease.
DNA collection has been attempted on native Americans but they are very reluctant to participate in such programs. Sometimes the resistance has more to do with money than anything else, because families that fought hard to obtain benefits meant for legally recognized native Americans fear they may lose those benefits if they are found to have too little native American blood in them.
We don’t want to live in a world where people’s rights and privileges are decided based on their DNA, but it was not so long ago that most countries had feudal governments that did trace bloodlines. If you were born into the wrong family you could not enjoy certain rights and privileges. And naturally most people were born into the wrong families.
Heath Ledger starred in the movie “A Knight’s Tale” in which blood and family played a prominent role in the plot. Ledger’s character was the son of a thatcher who found a place for him as the peasant squire of a traveling knight. When the knight died the peasant used his armor to masquerade as a knight so that he could enter tournaments. One of his companions created a false genealogy for him.
Such things really did happen but the consequences of being caught were deadly. The European nobility took their rights and privileges seriously and they did not tolerate impostors. That is a part of history I hope we never repeat, for we don’t want to create a privileged based on blood and birthright.
