-Your
Guide to the Cultural Impact of Emerging Technologies.
Eudoxa Comment November 2003
DNA Register for All the Wrong Reasons
by Alexander Sanchez and Anders Sandberg
translated by Lene Johansen
The article has been syndicated and published in several Swedish papers.
The murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh triggered the debate about criminal DNA registers and the possibility of creating such a register covering all Swedish citizens. The Swedish track record on privacy is not encouraging, it was the first country in the world to issue personal identification numbers, there are little or no legal limitations for the use of them and the government has its own agency selling comprehensive information about the citizens to any paying customer. The Christian Democrat party leader; Alf Svensson is just one in a long line of politicians preaching the benefits of a DNA register. Despite the fact of the benefits of such a register, it is essential to point out the comprehensive difficulties, not to mention the ethical questions.
The public discourse is in general giving a way to optimistic picture on the efficacy of DNA leads in a criminal investigation. Crime scene investigation is still very complex police work. Results take time; reality is unfortunately not like police TV series where a crystal clear answer comes in the afternoon after you submitted the evidence collected. It is more likely to eliminate suspects because DNA shows that the suspect was not at the scene of the crime. USA has been forced to reopen old convictions where DNA evidence prompted the convicts to demand retrials. This has caused troubles and increased costs for the judicial system. There is no argument against the benefits of acquittal of innocents, but enthusiasm among Swedish politicians is based on the hope of finding a new wonder method for police work, just as fingerprints where once hoped to be.
There are substantial concerns regarding autonomy, integrity and legal protection, not only in regards to the test itself, but also the difficulties of building comprehensive DNA registers.
There is a substantial amount of individuals that would not let themselves get tested voluntary. Their reasons range from general orneriness to religious principles. It would be hard to combine mandatory tests with the international conventions on human rights that Sweden has signed. Making DNA testing a mandatory part of medical examinations or other social services would have the unintentional effect that people will not seek these services, and that the expected neutrality of medical and social service personnel towards a citizen would be undermined. There are also dilemmas connected to using already existing DNA registers that the public healthcare service have built up for other purposes than what they where built up for as this will violate the informed consent originally given by the patient. This would also violate the Swedish "biobank"-legislation that protects citizens against the use of tests without direct consent.
How and where would these tests and the register be kept? What demands could or should be put on security? Who would access the tests and other information in such a register? How should unintended knowledge generated by this register be handled, e.g. knowledge on the amount of children where the dad on the birth certificate does not coincide with the biologic evidence, or who are carriers of deadly genetic diseases? Just imagine the amount of resources demanded for collection, keeping, security and extraction of tests, not to mention creation, maintenance and updating of a register. And first and foremost; the resources on educating criminal investigators about use of the register so that it will be but to proper use. Are these resources going to be taken from the healthcare budget or the police budget? Quite frankly, the current fiscal crisis in Swedish economy creates a high risk that they will skimp on educating the users and thus increase the risk of diminishing use and integrity.
Increased use of this information increase use of abuse; the current frantic discourse on the issue has hardly given room for the necessary assessment of the benefits up against the disadvantages. The choice is not a DNA register or not, but rather how comprehensive these registers should be and how they should be scrutinized. Even extensive encroachments on personal integrity can be accepted if they are combined with equally extensive protections against abuse, independent supervision, public liability and first and foremost transparency.
All the while the Christian Democratic Party professes to be the protectors of virtue; Alf Svensson should make an ethic assessment of his own suggestion rather than find ethical motivations for a proposal that are desirable on rather vague basis. This is first and foremost a debate on what kind of society we want to live in. Neither DNA registers, nor the technology is in and of itself wrong. This technology can help people and increase the legal protection of individuals; the problem is lack of knowledge of the impact of the technology and the paternal view on how it should be applied.