Monday, December 11, 2006
Britain's Top Cop: Take Babies' DNA
"“As well as solving crime, it would really make someone think twice about committing crime if they knew their DNA was on a database.

'There is also a compelling case for taking DNA from people when they die, so that we can cleanse the database.'

There are already three million profiles — covering six per cent of the population — on the National DNA Database, set up in 1999.

Currently saliva samples are taken only from those arrested and cost £47 to put on the database.

Yet 'heel prick' blood samples are already taken from babies at four days old to test for genetic diseases and could be used at little extra cost."

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One Generation Is All They Need
"One day we will all happily be implanted with microchips, and our every move will be monitored. The technology exists; the only barrier is society's resistance to the loss of privacy

By the time my four-year-old son is swathed in the soft flesh of old age, he will likely find it unremarkable that he and almost everyone he knows will be permanently implanted with a microchip. Automatically tracking his location in real time, it will connect him with databases monitoring and recording his smallest behavioural traits.

Most people anticipate such a prospect with a sense of horrified disbelief, dismissing it as a science-fiction fantasy. The technology, however, already exists. For years humane societies have implanted all the pets that leave their premises with a small identifying microchip. As well, millions of consumer goods are now traced with tiny radio frequency identification chips that allow satellites to reveal their exact location."

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