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Catalonia's regional government will collect DNA samples in order to identify people who died in during Spain's 1936-1939 civil war and the subsequent dictatorship of Francisco Franco:
Spain's Catalonia region has launched the country's first public DNA profiling project in a bid to identify some of the 114,000 people who disappeared during the nation's civil war and subsequent dictatorship. The issue is hugely sensitive in Spain, where rights abuses during the 1936-1939 conflict and the ensuing 36-year rule of dictator Francisco Franco remain uninvestigated for fear of reviving divisions.
Raul Romeva, who handles transparency matters in Catalonia's regional government, described the initiative as "a decisive step towards restoring" historical memory. "It is a democratic duty that was long pending," he told AFP news agency on Wednesday. "This should have started 40 years ago," added Romeva, referring to Franco's death in 1975 and the subsequent transition to democracy.
Under the programme, scientists will create a database for the DNA profiles of those related to people who disappeared. For this, they will collect samples from remains found in mass graves, and try and find matches with the help of the Barcelona-based Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. A similar project has already been set up in Barcelona on a smaller-scale, but it is privately-funded by two descendants of people who disappeared. In the space of five years, they have collected 125 genetic samples from relatives, but have not been able to cross-check the data with any remains as they do not have access to mass graves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @11:12PM
It is the many nefarious uses that give me pause. Now that easy gene editing has arrived via CRISPR/Cas9 on the one hand, and the proof that the government has thoroughly abrogated the Constitution via the NSA (among many other crimes), giving up my DNA to the government is the last thing I'd trust them with.
Absolutely! I'm going to call the U.S. senators from Catalonia and let them know that they're barking up the wrong tree and that the U.S. constitution applies to them, too!
We can't allow this sort of extreme government overreach in our country! The government of Catalonia needs to respect the constitution!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @11:15PM
Cute, but he was clearly speaking generally and didn't mean that Catalonia was part of the US. Governments collecting DNA on a massive scale is unethical no matter what country it happens in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @11:24PM
I see your sarcasm detector isn't in good working order.
You might want to get that checked out [youtube.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @11:30PM
Cute, but he was clearly speaking generally and didn't mean that Catalonia was part of the US. Governments collecting DNA on a massive scale is unethical no matter what country it happens in.
Same AC here. What's more, despite the NSA and other TLAs illegal activities, the only folks in the U.S. creating huge databases of its citizenry are private corporations (leaving aside CODIS [wikipedia.org], which is a different animal and has its own set of ethical/legal issues).
Even worse, you ended that sentence with a preposition. For shame!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @12:06AM
What's more, despite the NSA and other TLAs illegal activities, the only folks in the U.S. creating huge databases of its citizenry are private corporations (leaving aside CODIS, which is a different animal and has its own set of ethical/legal issues).
For now. Although, law enforcement in some states often collects DNA unnecessarily when you're arrested, even if you are later releases. The government can also get the data from private corporations.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 09 2016, @02:51AM
What's more, despite the NSA and other TLAs illegal activities, the only folks in the U.S. creating huge databases of its citizenry are private corporations (leaving aside CODIS, which is a different animal and has its own set of ethical/legal issues).
"But corporations do it too", ignores both the greater abuses possible to government agencies and that the worst abuse of huge private databases is by a government agency getting access. There is a theme here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @12:08PM
What's more, despite the NSA and other TLAs illegal activities, the only folks in the U.S. creating huge databases of its citizenry are private corporations (leaving aside CODIS, which is a different animal and has its own set of ethical/legal issues).
"But corporations do it too", ignores both the greater abuses possible to government agencies and that the worst abuse of huge private databases is by a government agency getting access. There is a theme here.
Same AC here. I wasn't giving the government or corporations a pass on this. I was pointing out that despite the paranoia expressed by the previous posters, the scumbags at the various government agencies aren't (yet) compiling vast DNA databases the same way as they are with phone metadata and internet traffic.
Currently, the corporations that are amassing these DNA databases are doing so with the cooperation of the folks giving them their genetic material for "testing." I imagine that, in large part, those are the same folks who give Google, Facebook and other marketing leeches their PII and allow them to track their entire lives, online and offline.
That doesn't mean the government won't start tapping those DNA databases "for the children!" and/or have HHS set guidelines "suggesting" that hospitals and birthing centers take DNA from every child born in their facilities at some point in the future.
But that's not going on at the moment, and I imagine that, given the uproar over SOPA, CISPA and its ilk, we'd see widespread opposition to this sort of thing, at least in the US.
As the old saw goes, "just because you're paranoid, it doesn't meant they aren't out to get you."
For the moment, DNA databases are much less of a worry than Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act [eff.org], Sectionj 215 of the PATRIOT Act [eff.org], the use of IMSI catchers like Stingrays [wikipedia.org] by all manner of "law enforcement" groups, the continuing militarization of police [wikipedia.org], increasing consolidation and cartelization of the Internet Broadband/Content industries [nytimes.com] and a host of other, more pressing (as they're actually happening) issues.
Perhaps we should address those issues, rather than railing about stuff that isn't actually going on? Just a crazy thought.