DNA tests offer deeper examination of accused

Second-generation tests may shed light on biological, emotional states

Twenty years after DNA fingerprints were first admitted by American courts as a way to link suspects to crime scenes, a new and very different class of genetic test is approaching the bench.

Rather than simply proving, for example, that the blood on a suspect's clothes does or does not match that of a murder victim, these "second generation" DNA tests seek to shed light on the biological traits and psychological states of the accused. In effect, they allow genes to "testify" in ways never before possible, in some cases resolving long-standing legal tangles but in others raising new ones.

Already, chemical companies facing "toxic tort" claims have persuaded courts to order DNA tests on the people suing them, part of an attempt to show that the plaintiffs' own genes made them sick -- not the companies' products.

In other cases, defense attorneys are asking judges to admit test results suggesting that their clients have a genetic predisposition for violent or impulsive behavior, adding a potential "DNA defense" to a legal system that until now has held virtually everyone accountable for their actions except the insane or mentally retarded.

Some gene tests are even being touted for their capacity to help judges predict the likelihood that a convict, if released, will break the law again -- a measure of "future dangerousness" that raises questions about how far courts can go to abort crimes that have not yet been committed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24231824/

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{Well.....I guess it was bound to happen. A sample of your DNA is taken when you apply for a Drivers Licence or buy a gun and several months later the cops show up at your door with an arrest warrant. The charge " Dangerous genes". A judge has decided that the police have the right to arrest you because your DNA shows you are capable of carrying out serious crimes in the "future".

Like the Tom Cruise movie "Minority report" criminals are caught before the crimes they commit have taken place. Your genes sold you out the day you were born.

Science is marching forward and soon startling new tools will be available for the police and prosecutors. Soon a jury of your peers will not be necessary to decide your guilt or innocence as a simple swab with a Q-tip inside your mouth will do the trick.....and while we are at it lets check and see if any of your children are likely to break the law in the future? A "re-education" camp and "gene therapy" may be the answer for them.

How can our right to privacy compete with these new medical discoveries? After all if you can prevent a murder by arresting the murderer in advance it's a "win/win situation. Perhaps a request for a complete analysis of DNA will be asked for before that first date? How many abortions would take place because the DNA of the fetus suggested a proclivity toward crime?

Where do we draw the line when it comes to what science can do? It's a question that seems to confront us in so many ways, Clones, artificial biological life, the mixing of human and animal DNA, tomato's that bleed human blood or growing human ears on the backs of mice? It's all coming so what are we going to do?

How would you like your DNA to send you to the slammer for possible crimes in the future?}

Rose