Guests
- Wendy McGoodwinExecutive Director, Council for Responsible Genetics
- Paul BillingsAssociate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and author of DNA on Trial: Genetic Identification and Criminal Justice
This week two U.S. Marines were Court Martialled for refusing to allow the military to take a blood and tissue samples from them for DNA identification. While the Pentagon claims the DNA would only be used to help identify service members killed in combat, the marines were worried that their genetic information could be used against them in the future, perhaps by insurance companies which have been known to deny health coverage to people who carry certain genes that are associated with diseases. The issue of DNA testing has raised the specter of “genetic discrimination” and poses serious questions about how science and technology can come into conflict with our privacy and democracy.
Related Story
StorySep 04, 2025“Uniting for Peace”: How U.N. Could Override U.S. Veto, Send Peacekeepers to Gaza, Block Arms & MoreThe original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
Top
Media Options