Thursday, April 24, 2008

DNA Tests Violate 5th Amendment?

In 1974, a man who came to be known as BTK strangled a family of four. He continued to kill for the nest 17 years claiming 6 more victims. However, he went silent after that, disappearing. He reappeared in 2004, hinting that he was about to strike again. Police managed to zero in on a man named Dennis Rader as their primary suspect. They had been able to obtain genetic samples from the crime scenes, and they hoped to link this DNA to Rader. Unfortunately they could not get DNA from Rader himself. However, Rader's daughter had had a pap smear in college, and the authorities subpoenaed it to obtain DNA. In the end, they used this as well as further evidence to convict Rader.
Most people see this as a triumph of genetic technology. However, privacy advocates see it as a dangerous trend that is continuing to violate our rights to privacy. When Rader's pap smear was subpoenaed, she was not consulted. Beyond violating her right to privacy, I believe that these actions also violated the 5th amendment. Since the evidence was something that only a family member could provide, the authorities would have had to get permission before using the evidence.

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