DNA FINGERPRINTING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY. By: Carolina Veronese (Leader) Desiree J. Espinal Jose M. Villar Sherece Rodriguez

Transcription

1 DNA FINGERPRINTING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY By: Carolina Veronese (Leader) Desiree J. Espinal Jose M. Villar Sherece Rodriguez EGN1033: Technology, Humans and Society FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Dr. Sabri Tosunoglu Summer A 2005

2 DNA FINGERPRINTING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY PAGE Introduction by Jose M. Villar 3 The Process by Jose M. Villar 4 Disadvantages by Sherece Rodriguez 4 Advantages by Desiree J. Espinal (Cases by Carolina Veronese) 6 The Future by Carolina Veronese 10 Conclusion by Carolina Veronese 11 Sources 13 2

3 INTRODUCTION DNA (also known as deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material of a cell; it is composed of 3 billion base pairs, the bases are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. When three bases are paired together, they form amino acids and these long chains of amino acids form all the proteins, enzymes and molecules the cell needs to survive, repair and reproduce. Cells also use DNA for inheritance purposes; they give their offspring s a variety of DNA and only the most successful ones survive according to Darwin s theory of survival of the fittest. Every generation receives the inherited material from both of their parents in a process called meiosis; this process assures that randomly selected genes from each parent is placed into the genetic material of it offspring; by doing so, the cell assures that there will be genetic variance, this variance allows for the species to survive if any drastic event occurs since there is more possibility of it adapting. On the other hand, as there is genetic variance among different organism of the same species, in one organism there is no genetic variance, which entails that all cells are clones of the same cell that was once produced from the parents. This particular point is key to DNA fingerprinting; DNA fingerprinting is the ability of organizing the DNA in a way that can be understood. With the principle that all cells in a human body contains the same genetic material, and that that genetic material comes from the random union of the genetic material from the parents, the practice of DNA fingerprinting comes to life. 3

4 THE PROCESS But how is DNA fingerprinting done? As one probably can guess, it is too hard to compare three billion base pairs one by one, which only differ in 1% from one another. What is actually done, is that the DNA in question is broken into small segments, these segments are broken with the aid of enzymes. The enzymes recognize a particular sequence of bases and break the bonds after those bases are found; then they are separated in descending order from largest to smallest with a process called electrophoresis. Then with the aid of probes, the small segments are marked and exposed on an X-ray film, where a pattern of black lines emerge, illustrating a typical DNA fingerprint. DISADVANTAGES Privacy is an issue that concerns almost everyone (if not all) who is alive. An infant, who is first learning to potty train, needs a little privacy; a teenager, who is talking on the phone with his or her crush wants privacy from his or her parents or siblings; adults, especially when money is concerned, want their credit card and bank information to be kept private. No matter who is concerned, privacy will almost always be an issue. However, the previously mentioned examples will only be seen as minor issues when compared to the issues brought on by DNA fingerprinting. DNA profiles are different from fingerprints, which are useful only for identification. DNA can provide information to many private 4

5 aspects of a person and their families including susceptibility to particular diseases and maybe predispositions to certain behaviors. Unprotected DNA data can also increase the potential discrimination by government, insurers, employers, schools, banks, and others. According to the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, those examples are considered ethical, legal, and social concerns that will most likely arise if DNA fingerprinting persists. First of all, ethically speaking, DNA fingerprinting can end up hurting people throughout their every day life. Collected samples of DNA are stored, and many state laws do not require the destruction of a DNA record or sample after a conviction has been overturned. There remains a chance that a person s entire genome may be availablecriminal or otherwise. This poses a problem for the person who is innocent of a crime because their DNA information is still on file along with their crime. This DNA data can, also, eventually be used to reveal personal information such as susceptibilities to diseases and certain behaviors. The sample of blood or saliva can provide information about whether the person has a genetic disorder such as chromosome abnormalities (which causes Down Syndrome) or a predisposition to common diseases, such as a heart disease. In the future, the DNA sample may be able to offer predictive information about predispositions to addiction or other behavioral traits that may be useful in police profiling, but may hurt the individual concerned. Such information can cause the individual to be institutionalized in order for the problem to be taken care of before it even starts. Another one of the issues of DNA fingerprinting is the legal concern. For one, who is chosen for sampling is one of the concerns. For example, in the United Kingdom, all suspects can be forced to provide a DNA 5

6 sample. Just as well, those who are just arrested, no matter the degree of the charge or may possibly not even be convicted may also have to provide the DNA test. This allows police officers, rather than judges and juries, to provide the state with intimate evidence that could lead to investigative arrests. As of now, in the United States, arresting people on less than a probable cause just to obtain DNA evidence raises the question of Fourth Amendment violations against unreasonable search and seizure. Basically, someone can be arrested, not by being caught doing something wrong, but just by his or her DNA information. Lastly, social issues of DNA samples leads to refusals of employment, insurance, schools, banks, adoption agencies and more. Hence, the biggest social issue would be discrimination. Agencies will eventually have the ability to look into one s DNA profile and choose the person that is best qualified. Forget about interviews for a job. Forget about giving people a chance. Someone of a particular race can be turned down for a position in a job just because the boss sees another race better qualified for the spot. Or, how about a married couple wanting to adopt because they are not able to have children of their own? Now they cannot adopt because the adoption agency found out, through DNA profiles, that the husband has a heart disease, and the couple are rejected. The agency wanted a healthy couple to take care of the child. DNA fingerprinting does pose a few ethical, legal, and social problems. It is only a matter of time before these issues begin to show. 6

7 ADVANTAGES Although there are negative impacts concerning DNA fingerprinting in society, there is no doubt that there have been tremendous amounts of advantages and positive impacts on society due to DNA fingerprinting technology with its uses in paternity/maternity testing, medical research, solving mysteries in history, criminal investigations and personal identification, as well as the Innocence Project. To begin with, because a person inherits his or her VNTRs (Variable Number of Tandem Repeats), which are short sequences of DNA used on the genetic chromosome as molecular markers, from his or her parents, one can use DNA fingerprinting to determine maternity, or more common, paternity. This has been useful to society in many ways. First of all, this blueprint analysis has helped the legal system determine who is the biological father of a child to help in establishing legal custody, legal nationality, enforcing child-support orders in the cases of minors and occurrences of adoption to name a few. For example, in the 1970s many women in Argentina were raped and killed; their children were taken at birth and raised by the kidnappers. DNA is now helping the grandparents of these children find and identify them. DNA fingerprinting is also useful for medical purposes. Presently, there is a lot of research going on trying to locate inherited disorders on the chromosomes with the help of DNA fingerprinting technology; this research is taking humans one step closer to finding genetic remedies for these disorders that include: cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, Alzheimer s disease, sickle cell anemia, Parkinson s disease, diabetes and so forth. In fact, biologists at the University of Liverpool have 7

8 discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV using DNA fingerprinting technology. They discovered that these individuals carry a genetic mutation that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. DNA also helps doctors match organ donors with the transplant beneficiary to avoid complications. Moreover, DNA fingerprinting helps resolve unsolved mysteries in history. For example, in 2000, scientists (using DNA fingerprinting technology) solved one of the greatest mysteries in the history of Europe by determining that the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette s son died as a child in prison, thus, did not escape the French Revolution safely like many historians in the past had argued. Finally, perhaps one of the most common, or talked about, cases where DNA fingerprinting is extremely valuable to society is when it is utilized in criminal or forensic investigations. DNA found on the body of the victims is compared with old dental or medical records of the injured party and matches are made. This is especially useful in the military where dozens of people die or disappear at a time. The only way to find out whom that person is (if their body is completely in unrecognizable conditions or parts are widely dispersed) is to take a sample, from a bone for example, and compare it with past records. DNA left at crime scenes, such as blood, semen, hair, skin cells and saliva help identify victims and perpetrators. Matches are found and arrests are made. Hundreds of cases have been decided with the help of DNA fingerprinting evidence and technology since CASES: 8

9 There are many famous and infamous cases that involved DNA fingerprinting. Listed below are some examples: Tommie Lee Andrews Tommie Lee Andrews, a serial rapist, raped a woman in Orlando, Florida at knifepoint during a burglary in He was the first American to be convicted as a result of DNA evidence. Josef Mengele Josef Mengele was a Nazi physician who performed experiments that were condemned as murderously sadistic on prisoners in Auschwitz. His body was found and identified through DNA testing in O.J Simpson The science was made famous in the United States in 1994 when prosecutors heavily relied on DNA evidence allegedly linking O. J. Simpson to the double homicide of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. However, the purpose of DNA is not solely used to prosecute and convict people of heinous crimes but it can also be used to exonerate the wrongly accused. For example, Innocence Project, started by lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld (aided by eighteen law students), reviews rape and murder cases of convicts that may have been wrongly accused because they were too poor to afford private lawyers or they were convicted based solely on witness identification, which can prove to be unreliable. With the help of modern DNA 9

10 fingerprinting technology they assist in granting these wrongly accused people freedom. This is obviously an advantage to society of the modern uses of DNA fingerprinting because there have been too many cases in the past where people have been wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit and even put on death row; DNA fingerprinting minimizes the chance for such a mistake to occur. In conclusion, DNA fingerprinting has revolutionized the way the legal system addresses maternity/paternity cases; the medical field is revolutionizing in ways never thought possible by researching more accurately cures for genetic diseases; historians can now solve historical unsolved mysteries and the way investigators solve forensic cases has also improved greatly all with the use of DNA fingerprinting technology. With growing knowledge in this field, one can only predict where this technology will take humans next. THE FUTURE DNA is the base for a wide variety of research programs and applications being developed for the near and far future. Here are a few examples: research to identify the gene that determines how much sleep humans need is being done and scientists believe that they have already located the gene; research on a variant gene that predicts longer survival of deadly brain tumor; researchers hope that their observations in C. elegans worms will contribute to our understanding of human aging; a project across five continents is aiming to map the history of human migration via DNA (This Genographic Project will collect DNA 10

11 samples from over 100,000 people worldwide to help piece together a picture of how the Earth was colonized); scientists call for a world DNA database, where everyone in the world should have their genetic profile stored on a database; finally, through DNA, chemists believe that they will have identified a gene that appears to play a key role in the development of Type 1 diabetes, which affects about one million people in the U.S.) CONCLUSION During the last few years we have seen an almost constant stream of stories about the role of DNA in the criminal justice system. Stories about convictions based on DNA test results; convictions overturned by DNA testing; changes in state and federal laws to enhance the collection and use of DNA as an investigative tool; and, even a presidential promise for funding to relieve the overwhelming accumulation of cases awaiting DNA testing. Because of its accuracy, the use of DNA evidence has been broadly embraced by the criminal justice system. Nowadays, there are three major needs regarding DNA fingerprinting. The first one is DNA testing in current investigations, that is, crimes being investigated and prosecuted today. Long waits for laboratory results end up having a negative impact on these cases. The second need is the testing and cataloging convicted felons, especially sex offenders. Most states now provide for testing and retention of DNA samples from these individuals, but many states and even the federal government reports a serious delay in cataloging these DNA samples. The last but not least is the need for testing old or cold cases. Tens of thousands of 11

12 rape kits are sitting in evidence rooms across the country waiting to be tested. Unfortunately, catching up with this overload is problematic when balanced against other priorities. However, cases in which a convicted and imprisoned defendant seeks testing to establish that person s actual guilt or innocence should always top the list of priorities. Because of advances in technology, post-conviction DNA testing might be appropriate, in limited cases, even if testing had been performed previously. The forms of testing used today were not widely available when DNA was first used in criminal cases in the mid-1980s. These presentday methodologies allow the testing of much smaller samples in a shorter time and are reliable on degraded samples. Overall, DNA fingerprinting is still undergoing major research but despite its disadvantages and concerns, the future of this new technology seems extremely promising to society. 12

13 SOURCES o Access Excellence at The National Health Museum website ( o American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics o Encarta Encyclopedia ( o Oak Ridge National Laboratory website ( o The Human Genome Research Institute website ( o The New York Times ( o UCLA Genetics Studies website ( o Washington University Biology Studies ( o Wikipedia Encyclopedia ( 13