Is someone trying to steal your DNA?

[Vmedvil]

This is a informational peice about DNA theft, read more at https://www.postbulletin.com/business/is-someone-trying-to-steal-your-dna

 

Do you think it should be illegal to steal someone's DNA?

[OceanBreeze]

This is very interesting, and also a tough question to answer.

We leave our DNA all over the place, on everything we come into contact with. How can picking up something that someone drops everywhere be called "theft"?

I do think that using someone's DNA for nefarious purposes, and without their consent, should be regulated by laws, but even then, those laws would need to be very carefully considered and drawn up.

The example of a curious person running a DNA test on his neighbor's hair strand, just to see what shows up,is a good one. Should that curious person be charged with a crime? I don't think so, and I find it difficult to even imagine what sort of law could be written to cover that.

Now, if the test reveals that the neighbor is related to Jeffrey Dahmer, just as an example, and the person who ran the test uses that information to blackmail his neighbor, that is clearly a crime. However, what makes it a crime is the blackmail, not the supposed "theft" of DNA.

This is quite interesting, and I am sure there will be more than a few legal cases arising from wrongful use of DNA acquired by covert means. 

I do think this will present a real challenge to lawmakers to write laws into the books that are meaningful and also fair.