- The Observer, Sunday March 3 2002
Stealing DNA material must be made a crime to prevent celebrities facing demands from blackmailers who learn their secrets from snatched samples, a government body will recommend.
Advances in technology now mean that DNA traces can be taken from a chewed pen top or a coffee cup from which someone has drunk.
These can be tested without the victim knowing to reveal potentially embarrassing information about their parentage, medical history or, potentially, such traits as alcoholism or aggression
The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) will urge Ministers in a report next month to outlaw obtaining samples by deceit or testing them.
The new law would protect ordinary patients as well as public figures from finding their material used in medical trials without their consent. It would also stop parents secretly testing their own children to check whether a partner has been unfaithful.
'As we go about our daily lives we are all depositing a trail of DNA residue - every glass you touch, every cigarette you smoke, every time you brush a hair from your lapels,' said Baroness Kennedy, chair of the body set up to judge awkward ethical issues arising from advances in genetics.
'In the frenzy for information about personalities and stars, you can imagine this sort of thing happening.
'Suppose some prominent figure in politics was suspected of not being the father of a child and a tabloid got hold of a sample. The incredible thing about DNA is that it has impact not only on one person but on their whole family's privacy too.'
The Government is due to publish a green paper on genetics later this year, drawn up by a separate panel already considering the blackmail risk. It is expected to suggest a penalty for the new offence.
The HGC report is expected to say that citizens should be encouraged in the spirit of 'genetic altruism' to take part in medical research on their DNA in the wider interests of society, but should not be pressured. They must remain confident that it will be anonymous and used only for the research purposes initially described.
The HGC will recommend that the dead should be exhumed and tested if that would help the health of relatives, for example to see whether they carry a gene for an inherited condition.
The fear of 'genetic trophy hunters' originated in the US. Former President Bill Clinton took it so seriously that his bodyguards were spotted pocketing a pint glass he had drunk from in a British pub, lest the presidential DNA be sampled from it.
Kennedy admits that the future availability of testing over the internet will provide new avenues for people to mail off samples from strangers for analysis.
The HGC also fears that people using online tests on their own DNA could find out about serious medical risks without counselling to prepare them for it.
