The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the right of privacy extends to blood samples:
A federal appeals court on Thursday declared unconstitutional a 2000 law that requires federal prisoners or those on supervised release to give blood samples for the FBI’s DNA databank.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first federal appeals court to address the federal DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, said requiring convicts to give blood for a criminal database is a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches.
On its face, this appears to be a good ruling. Although this kind of issue hasn’t gotten much media play, it’s growing increasingly important as our ability to gather and store data from human tissue continues to grow.
Several months ago quite a few men in Louisiana submitted DNA samples in conjunction with an ongoing murderer investigation. After a suspect was caught, there was a dispute as to whether the government could keep these samples. Does anyone know how or if that controversy has been resolved?
Via Say Uncle.
I think DNA samples should be taken from everyone who dies. The coroner or even a mortician should be trained to take the required sample with documentation. If their dead, is taking their Blood a violation of their rights? I don’t think so. This may solve many unsolved crimes and further reduce crimes because eventually even if your dead you will get caught.
I am also not againts every citizen being born submitting to DNA testing. It would help identify victims or horrific crimes, as well as identify criminals. Only those who do crimes would be opposed to such ideas. DNA everyone.