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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @11:51PM
I'd be very concerned if they collected my DNA and my family's whatever good faith reason the governement gives. Specially worrying if that governement is an ultranationalist one that have been disobeying the laws and the Constitution while openly saying that will declare the independence of the region in the next few months.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @01:25PM
Nice big DNA databases make it easier for a future and less encompassing group to selectively cull members of its society who do not meet the genetic profile deemed acceptable, as well as all their relatives, friends, associates and anyone else who they might feel the urge to purge.
For people who thought the SS, STASI, or any of the dozens to hundreds of groups who have been doing deliberate and bureaucratically efficient ethnic cleansing since were as bad as it gets, imagine when you can take DNA from any person caught up in a sweep, checkpoint, etc and compare them to your list of 'ethnically banned humans' for immediate purging. Forget political dissidents, imagine when your very genetics qualify you as a enemy of the republic (or whatever your government is.) We are fast approaching a time where I can see all of the genetic diversity we have left being purge in what could largely qualify as 'one fell swoop.' I can only hope if it does happen that it is not long after followed by a massive epidemic upon the remaining humans who without the genetic diversity can't find a cure and die out to make way for a future species elevation to a modern level of 'civilization', hopefully without the same caliber of mistakes we seem inevitably on the path to make.