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This is about genetics or so. In German, DNA is DNS, and we read that abbreviation a lot in the papers this year.
First for identifying the dead of the Asian tsunami. Apparently tests had been used there to be sure who was found. Not too much of a problem I guess.
Next, a new law was suggested to forbid men to secretly take DNA samples of a kid to ensure they’re actually the father. This is done to protect the child’s rights about its own information. Data protection if you wish. Not that these rights of children were taken seriously anywhere else but nonetheless… I can’t help but having to think that given the financial implications and all, it’s a bit unfair to not let the potential father be sure.
In the context of that, it was claimed that a rather hight number of children have a different father than they think have. Could that be true? Wouldn’t even rather obvious things such as the blood group have a high potential of uncovering it?
Anyway, this problem will probably go away before too long as I assume there’ll be DNA databases soon everywhere. They are doing it to identify criminals already and I assume health insurances and many others might be interested as well. And at least for the police this has just become more attractive in Germany as some Bavarian fashion type was killed last week and they found the guy who did it within two days because of a DNA sample. So the police, politicians and yellow press are salivating for DNA databases I guess. And I have to admit that the idea of being able to tell who was where is fascinating. Both in a good and a scary way.