Genetic surveillance

"The government's invasion into the privacy of individuals may be best illustrated in the area of genetic testing." [1] "The genetic surveillance and tracking represented by the federally funded Human Genome Project poses enormous threats to our basic rights to privacy and self determination." [2] "If everyone is tested and categorized, the potential for misuse of that information is so great that it screams for legislation to prevent genetic discrimination." [3]

"Genetic technologies reflect the power differentials in our society; they do not equally benefit all segments, nor are they meant to." [4] "Thus these technologies become social and political weapons in an already divided society." [5]

"Genetic surveillance would thus shift from the individual [the alleged criminal] to the family," Nicholas Wade wrote May 12, 2006, in the New York Times, "-- which will require, of course, a national DNA database of NON-criminals." [6]

Background

Original Definitions

• Genetic surveillance: "The process of identifying people who are at risk of developing a specific disease or of passing such a disease on to their children." [7]
• Genetic testing: "The examination of a DNA sample, to identify the structure of a specific gene to identify any significant faults (mutations)." [8]

Common Risks from Genetic Testing

There are some common risks which arise from genetic testing: [9]

• Risk to genetic privacy and confidentiality
• Risk of genetic discrimination
• Risk of creating social polarization between "the genetically advantaged and genetically disadvantaged"
• Risk of "creating a genetic surveillance society"

Related SourceWatch Resources

• bioethics
• biometrics
• ChoicePoint
• data mining
• eugenics
• George W. Bush's domestic spying
• human genome project
• National Center for Genome Resources

Websites

• DNA Fingerprinting and Civil Liberties Project, American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics website.
• Gene Watch website.
• Privacy International website. Includes current and archived article links.

External links

Articles by Philip Bereano

• "Don't Take Liberties with Our Genes." A version of this essay originally ran in the Seattle Times, July 17, 1997; it has been reworked and republished several times since then.
• With Richard Sclove, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Genetic Testing," Washington Post (loka.org), March 22, 1998.
• "The politics of DNA's meaning," Tikkun, September-October 1999 (14(5):23-4, 26). PubMed Abstract.
• "Don’t Take Liberties with Our Genes," Washington Public Health, Vol. 17 Fall 2000, pp. 19–21.

Articles & Commentary

2001

• Roxanne Mykitiuk, "The New Genetics in the Post-Keynesian State," The Canadian Women's Health Network, circa 2001.

2004

• "Millionth DNA sample on database," BBC, November 3, 2004: "The Forensic Science Service (FSS) has celebrated loading the one millionth DNA sample on to its national database since becoming fully automated in 2001."
• "Fears over expanded DNA database," BBC, November 10, 2004: "Plans for a universal DNA database in England and Wales should be scrapped because of the threat to civil liberties, a new report urges."

2005

• Carolyn Williams, Curriculum: "Human Cloning, Genetic Engineering and Privacy," Yale-Haven Teachers Institute, 2005.
• Merryn Ekberg, "Governing the Risks Emerging From the Non-Medical Uses of Genetic Test," Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2005.
• Maria João Boavida, "Portugal plans a forensic genetic database of its entire population - 2nd Part," Newropeans, April 11, 2005.
• Paul Rincon, "DNA project to trace human steps. A project spanning five continents is aiming to map the history of human migration via DNA," BBC, April 13, 2005.

2006

• James Randerson, "DNA of 37% of Black Men Held by Police," Guardian Unlimited (UK) (American Renaissance), January 5, 2006.
• "Around the World in 800 Billion Bases. Sanger Institute Genetic Records are World's Biggest," Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, January 17, 2006: "The Trace Archive is a store of all the sequence data produced and published by the world scientific community, including the Sanger Institute's own prodigious output as a world-leading genomics institution. ... To grasp how much data is in the Archive, if it were printed out as a single line of text, it would stretch around the world more than 250 times. Printing it out on pages of A4 would produce a stack of paper two-and-a-half times as high as Mount Everest."
• "Sanger DNA Database Doubles Every 10 Months," Future Pundit, January 22, 2006.
• "Scientists launch big genetic database project. UK Biobank, to hold millions of DNA samples, data," Reuters (MSNBC), March 14, 2006.
• Cory Reiss, "VA wants DNA from veterans," The Gainesville Sun (Florida), April 23, 2006.
• Greg Palast, "The Spies Who Shag Us. The Times and USA Today have Missed the Bigger Story -- Again," BuzzFlash, May 12, 2006.
• Nicholas Wade, "Wider Use of DNA Lists Is Urged in Fighting Crime," New York Times, May 12, 2006.