UC Berkeley Asking Incoming Students For DNA

peterofoz writes "The students will be asked to voluntarily submit a DNA sample. The cotton swabs will come with two bar code labels. One label will be put on the DNA sample and the other is kept for the students' own records. The confidential process is being overseen by Jasper Rine, a campus professor of Genetics and Development Biology, who says the test results will help students make decisions about their diet and lifestyle." No word in the story on just what "confidential" means — who will have access to the results, how long they'll be kept, or what else they might someday be used for. Will the notoriously liberal Berkeley campus see this as a service or an invasion of privacy?

Comments

Re:Both, of course

[spun]

Nope. Despite the propaganda put out by certain groups that do think in lock-step, liberals are fairly... liberal in their thinking. Liberals don't tend to hold the view that things are perfect just the way they are. Upholding the status quo means thinking the same thing: everything is peachy just the way it is and the old ways are best. Instead, liberals are open to new ideas and new ways of looking at the world, so they tend to be more eclectic in their thoughts and ideals than some other groups.

Re:Both, of course

[s73v3r]

The "fine" is there for when you require the use of emergency hospital services, and probably won't be able to pay for it because you lack insurance.