SCOTUS DNA Decision: A Disconcerting Reminder of Yesteryear

     The idea behind mass-collection of DNA from the recently arrested leads some to believe that this type of DNA data banking is the ultimate answer to catching the real criminals. However, some civil rights activists believe that the involuntary and mandatory collection of DNA at the time of arrest is in direct violation of U.S. civil rights. Warrantless DNA extraction has no bearing on that particular arrest, and everyone, even the arrested, has the expectation of privacy.

     The same mentality that applies to the current DNA debate applies to the early 1900s, where Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon at the Chicago Rockefeller Institute, was lauded by the medical community for his miraculous and living “immortal chicken heart” in 1912 (Skloot 333).  Carrel, however, deceived the medical community – and managed to do so for many years – until his fraud was discovered. Carrel’s “discovery” opened many doors for him; his book Man, The Unknown permitted him to declare his Nazi eugenic ideals in a public forum.  Carrel believed that the U.S. Constitution should be changed to say that “the feeble-minded and the man of genius should not be equal before the law” and that “the stupid, the unintelligent” do not have a right to obtain an education. In the end, however, Carrel died while on trial for assisting the Nazis and his un-miraculous chicken heart was “unceremoniously” thrown into the round file (Skloot 62).  Carrel believed that minorities and the less fortunate were not true citizens under the U.S. Constitution. 

   

 

    In the case of the arrested, they are minorities and their right to privacy is being violated.  Before we violate our civil rights, perhaps we should consider ways to prevent the crimes to begin with.  Making sub-minorities out of minorities (the numbers of minorities vs. white arrests in the country are staggeringly different) is not the direction we should take this country. Our DNA is already (nearly unwillingly, already) collected by the medical community. When will we put our foot down and find more reasonable alternatives to criminal arrests and crime prevention?  More money needs to be spent on education and less on criminalizing an already marginalized majority.  Are you prepared to live a life with no privacy?

Works Cited

     Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011. Print.