Privacy advocates fear a future in which the government will have the power to commandeer our genetic code, and where insurance companies and employers may share in the bounty. More DNA testing will solve more crimes, concedes Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. When it comes to refusing DNA tests, it appears that convicts have already lost. In April, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts approved that state's policy of taking DNA from people convicted of 33 different offenses. A federal appeals court had reached the same result four years earlier.
Opinions are all over the map.
It's popular now for state officials to call for widening the categories of people who will be tested. Initially, states tended to test only sex offenders and certain violent criminals. In New York City, Police Commissioner Howard Safir recommended last December the taking of DNA samples from anyone who is arrested and fingerprinted. In what was probably the most extreme trial balloon floated, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani drew flak by saying he wouldn't oppose taking samples from all newborn infants. This fall, the 1,700-member International Association of Chiefs of Police is expected to pass a resolution calling for more funding to test people arrested for crimes.