Cracking Crime with DNA profiling

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN put it succinctly when he declared that “those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither”.

The fear was that new legislation empowering the gardaí to take DNA samples from those suspected of a crime would be unwelcome, over-reaching, overbearing, and, ultimately, destructive of our civil liberties.

After all, the values of tolerance, free speech, privacy, and personal autonomy are under attack in major democracies such as the US and the UK, almost certainly as a result of the ‘war on terror’ declared in the wake of the attacks on Sept 11, 2001.