The U.S. Government plans to announce a universal DNA collection program (known as Your DNA, or YDNA) in the near future; officials are quietly working out the details now. Plans are to collect DNA from every person born in a hospital or receiving hospital services including emergency room care, elective surgery, or outpatient care; and to collect DNA from individuals who visit any medical care provider such as a doctor or dentist, and from anyone entering the United States at airports or border crossings. Spokesman Alberto Addington said that the new program would preserve individual liberty and protect citizens against criminal activity. "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear," he said.
The new program is based upon the hugely successful expansion of DNA programs implemented by the FBI and State law enforcement officials as reported in the New York Times. Under that program, DNA databases from all states were merged into a single national database run by the FBI. Some states had been collecting DNA from innocent persons arrested but not convicted of crimes, or convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors such as failure to pay parking tickets.
"We realized that rather than waiting for crimes to occur, and then searching through a database hoping to find a match, it would be easier to simply collect the data first," Addington said. "Under this new program, people who are victimized by crime would have a higher assurance that we would successfully find and prosecute those responsible. Innocent people have nothing to fear; we are very comfortable with the low percentage of errors in DNA matching. We're counting on the tourism industry and medical professionals to do their patriotic part to help law enforcement and civil authorities secure America's future."
When asked about the recent revelations that the National Security Agency may have overstepped its legal grounds for conducting surveillance on American citizens, and how the country could be protected against the possibility of similar misconduct by agencies using the DNA database, Addington averred that "we have put in place stringent protections to be sure that officials do not misuse the data." Pressed for details, he said "saying more about the methods would reveal state secrets vital to our national security, and would put at risk our efforts to protect every citizen in this great country. However, we would be open to discussions about sharing DNA information on foreign nationals entering the U.S. with their home country governments to assist in their efforts to provide safety and security for their own citizens at home."
Addington further contended that with the need for immigration reform growing more urgent, the DNA database would help keep track of which children born to Latino parents in the United States have legal claims to citizenship regardless of whether their parents entered the country illegally or remained illegally after their visas or work permits expired. "We know that Latinos have a high birth rate compared to the rest of the population, and even though they are only 13 percent of the population, they account for 40 percent of federal offenses. But we want to be sure that their children's rights are protected, and having a positive DNA match is one way of doing that."
When asked why some 40 percent of DNA samples currently in the database are from African-Americans, even though blacks make up only 15 percent of the population, Addington smiled as he answered. "Now you're getting at the problem," he said. "When we capture everyone's DNA, the percentage of DNA belonging to any one racial or ethnic group will be consistent with that group's representation in the entire population of the United States. Today's DNA database numbers make it look as though we've singled out African-Americans or selectively prosecuted cases based on racial profiling. We're trying to erase that impression with our new YDNA program. We want to be sure that everyone has equal protection under the law."
Although Addington made some general remarks about the societal benefits to medical research, universal health care, and the insurance industry that might be possible once the YDNA database is up and running, further details of the new program are sketchy at this time. More will be forthcoming as soon as investigative reporters from serious newspapers and media sources track down the appropriate officials and obtain the background information needed to produce feature stories.
