Expanded N.Y. DNA Database Would Seek To Exonerate the Innocent, Expose the Guilty
By CBS NY,
CBS New York
| 01. 11. 2012
The state of New York is considering a dramatic expansion of its DNA collection. New Yorkers who find themselves under arrest for anything may soon have to give up a sample.
“I propose it be expanded to 100-percent of all crimes. Let’s provide justice for all and let’s be the first state in the union to do that,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said recently.
But critics are already sounding the alarm.
“My worst fear is that innocent people will go to jail because of mistakes made in an overburdened system,” said Jeremy Gruber of the Council for Responsible Genetics.
Donna Lieberman, a spokesperson for the New York Civil Liberties Union, told CBS2′s Lou Young that, “proposals like this make us feel like we’re living in a CSI fantasy.”
But it isn’t a fantasy. Scientists have solved everything from burglaries to serial murder by comparing crime scene DNA to the DNA database.
But the question remains, how large should that database get?
So far the criteria for New York’s database has been increased four times since 1999. It began tracking only violent...
Related Articles
By Margaux MacColl, The San Francisco Standard | 09.17.2025
Designer babies are coming soon to an IVF clinic near you.
Nucleus Genomics, founded by Kian Sadeghi in 2020, when he was just 20, got its start analyzing genomes to weigh a person’s risk of everything from cancer to ADHD...
By Johana Bhuiyan, The Guardian | 09.23.2025
In March 2021, a 25-year-old US citizen was traveling through Chicago’s Midway airport when they were stopped by US border patrol agents. Though charged with no crime, the 25-year-old was subjected to a cheek swab to collect their DNA, which...
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 08.01.2025
In June, Sara* received a message asking whether she wanted to continue to participate in a massive, multicenter research project led by scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark. The iPsych study, the message said, had sequenced her genetic data from...
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...