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Guthrie Cards - Australia's DNA Database

Posted by michael on from the drop-in-the-bucket dept.

bobo12345 writes "There was an interesting show (transcript here) on ABC TV's (Australia) Catalyst on Guthrie Cards - paper filter cards containing blood spots from almost every Australian born since 1970. These samples are routinely taken and stored in hospitals to screen for diseases like Cystic Fibrosis. Australian police have accessed the DNA database without consent in the past, successfully prosecuting an unpleasant incest case. This led to the destroying of all Guthrie Cards by the hospital whose original cards were obtained under a search warrant. Makes you wonder where your genetic material is stored, and which authorities have access. No alien DNA has been discovered on the Guthrie Cards (yet)."

2 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Alright I'll bite. by Kedyn's+Crow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's a truly bad and evil thing that crimes are being solved, wouldn't want that to happen anywhere else.

    I still don't understand why some people think that a crime committed by one individual against another is the worst thing that can happen. When the government abuses the people it is supposed to protect the results can literally be a million times worse. Think about how much worse things would have been if Hitler had access to this kind of information.

    You don't own your DNA, you are just borrowing it from the human race.

    Sure, and you don't "own" your fingerprints either. But their is a difference between the police collecting fingerprints for a particular investigation and the government mandating that everyone be fingerprinted.

    --
    "The moment "pride" is lost, "freedom" is also lost." - Ramza.
    1. Re:Alright I'll bite. by henrygb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is a difference between the police collecting fingerprints for a particular investigation and the government mandating that everyone be fingerprinted.

      Yes, but neither is as bad as the authorities keeping a partial set of fingerprints or DNA from past investigations.

      The real issue is that of false positive matches without true positive matches. This is low if the authorities do not keep information over time - since they will only test a small number of suspects each time. It is also relatively low if they have a complete database of the population - they will get false positives, but since they will probably also get the true positive, any match will not be used as conclusive proof. But with a large partial database (as happens now) the chance of a single positive being found, and that positive being false, becomes much higher.