DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides, each nucleotide is made up of a phosphate group, a sugar group, and a nitrogen base. The four bases are adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. Each DNA molecule has a different order of bases, and that order is what determines the genetic code. The bases thymine and adenine pair together and the bases guanine and cytosine pair together. DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder (double helix) with the sides composed of phosphate and sugar molecules, and the rungs are composed of the paired bases.
DNA replication occurs when helicase “unwinds” and “unzips” the DNA into two single strands. Primase attaches to each strand, and then DNA polymerase starts to add new bases, as it adds the bases the strands run in opposite directions. The bases connect and form a new strand of DNA with one original piece and one new piece. DNA needs to be replicated because when cells divide the new cell need “directions” that the DNA provides. DNA replication lets each cell have the same DNA.
DNA fingerprinting is useful in solving crimes because it can easily show if someone is innocent or not. In a lot of older cases when DNA testing was less accessible hundreds of people were able to be tied to crimes they did not commit and wrongfully convicted of them as well. In situations like cases involving rape, DNA analysts can take any bodily fluids left on the victim and use them to match DNA and blood type to any suspects involved in the case.
In 1991 two teenage girls woke up to find that someone had broken into their home during the night, the suspect then proceeded to hold the girls at knifepoint rape them, and then stay in the house for over an hour. Even though the girls did not have a good chance to see their attackers face the girls testified that he looked like Joseph Abbitt, a man that had previously lived in their neighborhood and had visited their home. Both girls picked Abbitt out of a photo lineup and the police started to focus in on him as a top suspect in the case.
Rape kits were collected from both girls as well as clothing and other objects from the crime scene. DNA found on clothing was not Abbitts, and all other DNA tests were inconclusive. In June 1995 Joseph Abbitt was tried in front of a jury. Despite his strong alibi of being at work, his boss was unable to come up with time cards because of the four-year time lapse between the crime and the trial. Based solely on eyewitness accounts Joseph Abbitt was convicted for two life sentences plus 110 years on accounts of rape, burglary, and kidnapping.
In 2005 Abbitt reached out to the North Carolina Center of Actual Innocence for assistance. When Abbitt's case was being tried police were not obligated to save evidence from the trial, and most of it had been destroyed. However, the rape kits and a few other items were still at the police department. During testing of one of the rape kits the DNA that was tested did not match Abbitts; therefore he was set free and officially exonerated in 2009 after serving 14 years in prison.
I don't believe that everyone living in the united states should have their DNA put into a database. Once the government has your DNA, you have no idea what is going to happen to it and how it will be used. Anyone that has your DNA can track you and your family and find out what diseases you may have. Making a DNA database for the entire population leaves people at risk for things they may not even understand. If a suspect's DNA is already in the system and DNA from the crime is close enough they may still be convicted of a crime they did not commit.
Although having a national DNA database would help solve more crimes and make it easier to locate suspects, it also makes it easier to have outsiders misusing DNA information. Having a national database makes it easier to “biotag” someone, meaning you can follow someone just by using DNA. In states where freedom of speech is limited, the police and other law enforcement can use fingerprinting at the site of a meeting to see if certain persons were there. Having a national DNA database is not only an infringement on privacy, but it also makes the population more susceptible to manipulation.
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