More on the DNA Database

An excellent piece from Henry Porter writing in the Groan on the matter of the contemptible DNA database proposals.

Let me explain why extension of the database should worry us all. The taking of a swab from a person’s mouth – by force when necessary – and retaining that sample indefinitely, whether that person has committed a crime or not, is a very serious intrusion. The state owns and has access to the essence of that individual’s being. In the future, it may share the information with whom it likes, investigate the as yet unknown secrets of that sample and make deductions which are prejudicial to that individual or the individual’s blood relations. Once on the DNA database, a person is regarded as being in a pool of potential criminals and in an oblique way likely to be guilty of something or other.

Do go and read it all. There are, naturally, the Neil Hardingesque useful idiots in the comments section who spout the usual drivel about a conspiracy of the rich against the poor. That such facile stupidity exists is a marvel of human evolution – that is; the ability to still function with such low reasoning skills. I really don’t know how they manage it.