SAN FRANCISCO -- On a March day three years ago in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, Elizabeth "Lily" Haskell was arrested during a rally against the Iraq War, cuffed on a felony allegation that she tried to spring another protester who had been taken into custody.
But once hauled off to jail, Haskell found herself in the legal cross hairs for more than just civic rabble-rousing. Sheriff's deputies ordered her to submit to DNA testing under a then-new provision of California law, giving her the choice of letting them swab the inside of her cheek or face an additional misdemeanor charge and sit in a jail cell for two days.
Haskell relented and took the DNA test. But now the Oakland woman is at the center of an American Civil Liberties Union legal challenge to a state law that allows law enforcement to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony, regardless of whether they are later charged or convicted. In Haskell's case, prosecutors never followed up the 2009 arrest with a criminal charge.
By Nada Hassanein, New Jersey Monitor | 03.14.2024
Aggregated News
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could...
By Daniel Gilbert, The Washington Post | 03.07.2024
Aggregated News
Vitaly Kushnir’s fertility clinic offers to screen an embryo to predict a baby’s sex, but the service can lead to ethically murky territory, like when a couple wanted it so their first child could be a boy.
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