Some decisions are best made by humans, not machines
“Back in the laboratory, they are dissecting humanity…”
Do you really know what nationality you are, and we mean in terms of your ethnicity? Did your mother maybe have a brief romantic fling with a romantic and dashing Hungarian prince on her hen’s night and unknowingly you are of Eastern European extract? Not likely, but with generations of inter-marriage, global mobility, sexual liberation and on, anything is possible. These factors make a new imitative in the UK , the edge of a scientific racial purity precipe that holds danger. Sometimes the doings of man are best decided by people, not scientists.
The UK has just introduced DNA testing for people’s applying for asylum there to prove they do actually come from the country they claim. This is a very slippery slope. Tying DNA to nationality is a science prone to error. Taking an infamous example, if you test Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi resident, his family originated from Yemen. Borders are arbitrarily drawn such as in Iraq, where Kurd, Turkman and Arab have blended and shifted as the borders changed. The British made South Africa one nominal country containing tribes that are found in various nations – what would their DNA say. To deny someone asylum based on the results of a random DNA check negates any humanistic intent. It smacks of a Big Brother approach to government and is a direction of blunt scientific test application that should be resisted.
Sphere: Related ContentBritain is using genetic tests on some African asylum seekers in an effort to catch those who are lying about their nationality, drawing criticism from scientists and provoking outrage from rights groups.
The United Kingdom Border Agency launched the pilot project in September amid suspicions there might be a large number of asylum applicants lying about their home countries. An agency spokesman said Britain was the only country using genetic tests in this way.
Experts, however, say the tests are based on flawed science and there’s no way genetic swabs can provide meaningful evidence regarding nationality.
Concerned about potential fraud, the Bush administration launched a pilot DNA testing project in 2007 to vet applicants to a program that allows family members of African refugees already in the United States to join them.
The project, which wrapped up in March 2008, found an extremely high rate of fraud – 87 percent – among applicants claiming to be related to each other, the State Department said, and the resettlement program was suspended until those concerns could be addressed. The U.S. does not use genetic tests to try to prove nationality.
