Forensic DNA boom stokes ethical fears

Scary story. Are we moving closer and closer to a full-blown Police State in the UK? It seems that the government is so obsessed with terrorism and crime that it will go to any lengths to get results.

To quote from the article: “..the case of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who went missing in Portugal, has raised questions about modern reliance on DNA evidence after theories multiplied based on the partial results from trace amounts of biological evidence. Alec Jeffreys, the genetics professor who invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984 and went on to help police crack the Pitchfork case, is justifiably proud of his discovery…..Yet he is worried, saying he fears society has failed to grasp the ethical issues of DNA collection, its potential for abuse and the limitations of genetic analysis.

“The legislation is lagging really rather seriously behind the use of the database,” he said. “I take the simple view that my genome is mine. Under some circumstances, I’ll allow the state limited access. But prying into my DNA …? I am wholly opposed to that.”

Yes, I am opposed to terrorism. I’ve lived in Northern Ireland for nearly 12 years so I’ve seen my share of it. But the simple question is this: “Does the end justify the means??”

See more of the story at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/26/2070838.htm

Posted by Jeremy on October 26th, 2007

Filed under Moral & Ethical Issues, Politics | No Comments »

Marriage is Healthy!! It’s Official.

Marriage beats all other living arrangements in terms of its benefits to adults and children, an official Government study has found.

Married adults were shown to be healthier and to live longer than cohabiting or single people, whether widowed or divorced, according to the Focus on Families survey by the Office of National Statistics.

See more at the Christian Institute web site.

But the question is: Will the Government take any notice of their own study, or will they choose to ignore it???

Posted by Jeremy on October 18th, 2007

Filed under Politics, Spirituality | No Comments »