ABSTRACT
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology involves new scientific techniques for identifying or excluding people, the techniques are extensions and analogs of techniques long used in forensic science, such as serological and fingerprint examinations. Concerns about intrusions into privacy and breaches of confidentiality regarding the use of DNA technology in enterprises as gene mapping are frequently voiced, and they are legitimate ethical worries. By the summer of 1989, a crescendo of questions concerning DNA typing had been raised in connection with some well-publicized criminal cases, and calls for an examination of the issues by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences came from the scientific and legal communities. DNA typing can be a powerful adjunct to forensic science. Forensic scientists can enter an unidentified latent fingerprint pattern into an automated system and within minutes compare it with millions of patterns contained in a computer file.
