DNA Testing For All

Tonight there will be old men struggling to get to sleep in Britain's bedrooms, their minds tormented by crimes they committed a generation ago; usually sex crimes, but not exclusively. They will have turned off the television news with the echo of their unsolved wrongdoing reverberating in their heads. And never a word will be murmured to the woman lying by their side in wedded innocence. They will have taken a stiff whisky before retiring, but it will be insufficient to loosen a confessional tongue, frozen in near-silence since they strangled the life out of the fourteen year old girl as she took a shortcut home from school. No mitigating circumstances whatsoever.This old man will wonder what DNA evidence remains from the crime scene. The semen-stained undergarments, the hurried and unfinished cigarette left burning by a body in the woods. He may not be caught. But soon his life sentence will have ended. He will have drunk himself to death, his dark secrets cremated with him. But plenty of other elderly men who've seen their sons marry, who've become grandparents, have become "better people" will live in perpetual fear that their crimes of yesteryear will unravel when an inspector really does call.

There we have a fictional scenario. But what in reality can be done to try and stop some of the crimes of tomorrow? To me it is elementary to set in motion a programme of mass DNA testing. This would provide an invaluable database as more evidential material is retained by police forces throughout the land. Many law enforcers have been doing precisely that for a good number of years which means the white-haired murderers in our society will never be able to sleep. Nor should they !

The cold cases of the 1960s suddenly become the hot ones of the new millennium. Mass DNA screening would be hugely expensive. But it should begin immediately, starting with the newly-born to ensure the next generation is better protected. There is no discomfort. It would be as simple a procedure as placing an ID tag round the baby's tiny arm. It could then be carried out amongst the adult population in general on a voluntary basis initially - as with Britain's babies. Unlike ID cards, DNA matching is almost totally conclusive and forgery-free. Yes, for a small sacrifice in personal liberty, it will prevent or solve the crimes of the future but it will also eliminate the innocent from police suspicion.

Now, where is that swab ? I'll be among the first to volunteer. Why? Because I have nothing to hide. Have you?