We are led to believe by the police "Experts" that no two people can have the same dna profile; as "experts" are currently under fire for influencing court decisions by making ludicrous statements,which are seldom if ever questioned, due to their status in society, and which have resulted in people being wrongly imprisoned.could the law be wrong?
My question is: Who,of any standing, other than the law! and of course the inventor, has ever put put the whole dna theory to the test?
I watched a tv programe some time back, and if memory serves me correctly, The inventor of the whole dna theory, stated that we are all related and that the difference in peoples dna was so infinitesimal, as to be almost undetectable, can anyone recall anyone,other than the law, ever doing any investigation into the subject, We all blindly believe in what in effect is a very complex matter, and what we are told on the subject, But are we going to be finding mistakes were made yet again in future years
2006-11-02 07:35:14 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
YES
2006-11-02 07:45:35 · answer #1 · answered by diturtlelady2004 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think it has ever been physically put to the test. It appears to be very accurate and so far has not been disproven.
It does have to be said, so far, DNA profiling seems to get the right crook everytime. I'd like to know how the scientists managed to work out the margin for error though using DNA profiling. Obviously they didn't test it on 6 billion people to be sure of it's accuracy, so I would say that they've used some guesswork in there somewhere.
J
2006-11-02 08:01:22 · answer #2 · answered by J 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is not foolproof.
1) mistakes can be made at the lab.
2) samples can be contaminated or tampered with prior to testing.
3) People who have had bone marrow transplants will show a different DNA profile for a period of time after the procedure.
4) There actually are people (although extremely rare) who have different DNA in different sides or parts of their bodies. ( I learned that on a Health Channel program....it's true!)
Until the human race becomes infallible, any tool, no matter how precise, can be in error.
Yes, we are all related at the mitochondrial level. mtDNA is not used for determining the identity of individuals in legal cases.
2006-11-02 07:50:47 · answer #3 · answered by pessimoptimist 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
DNA is accurate. Some laboratories are incompetent, some are crooked.
What else is new? Remember the Dutch IVF lab that didn't wash its test tubes and one patient gave birth to twins: one white and one black. If it hadn't been for the racial disparity perhaps nobody would have known. http://www.mixedmediawatch.com/2005/09/23/two-different-races-in-the-same-womb/
And that wasn't the only time this happened: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2115522.stm
What happens is that labs and prosecutors try to cover up incompetence and the victim of a miscarriage of justice has a hard time getting a hearing. But it is, as they say, a poor workman who blames his tools. It's not the DNA system at fault, it's those who implement it, and then who refuse to double check, to doubt their conclusions. I'm reminded also of that charlatan Sir Roy Meadows who sent all those mothers to prison for murdering their babies who'd died from SIDS: claiming that it was "Munchausen's Syndrome By Proxy" and the chances of spontaneous death were less than a million to one. And he'd made it all up.
Say anything and if you wear a white coat they'll believe it.
2006-11-02 07:44:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
97% of our DNA is the same, that's why they say the difference is infinitesimal. However, the amount of data contained in that last 3% is extremely significant. It still accounts for millions upon millions of genes. And that 3% is unique for everyone (except identical twins) and it is also possible for 1 person to have two sets of DNA.
2006-11-02 07:45:45 · answer #5 · answered by Chris J 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
DNA is completely accurate. The only two people in the world who have an identical DNA sequence are identical twins. If mistakes are made, they are made by the lab, incompetent crime scene investigators or the samples are contaminated..
2006-11-02 17:51:53 · answer #6 · answered by SeahawkFan37 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. DNA identification is accurate to one in about six billion, which is exactly how many of you there are in the world. It's essentially flawless.
2006-11-02 07:38:56 · answer #7 · answered by christopher s 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋