The State May Have Your Genome Sooner Than You Think

Slate has an interesting article, O Brother, Where Art Thou? It's time for legislators to look more closely at familial searches of DNA databases. The principle is simple. States and national governments are already collecting genetic material from persons who have had brushes with the criminal justice system and assembling databases. These individuals naturally have relatives, who share genetic material with them. One point not explicitly mooted in the Slate piece: if your relations have become entangled with the criminal justice system, you also are much more likely to be so entangled. I am skeptical that all of the government officials who are assembling these databases are totally ignorant of these behavior genetic findings.