Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DNA Forensics
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords
Red blood cells; nucleus; lysis; precipitation; coding; loci; CODIS; short
tandem repeats (STR); RFLP; Frye test; silicon; agent orange; causation;
DNA dragnet; familial DNA; evidence; PCR (polymerase chain reac-
tion); paternity; punitive; mammoth
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction.....................................................................1
Chapter 2 How Do Scientists View DNA?.......................................3
Chapter 3 Legal History...................................................................9
Chapter 4 The Beginning of an Era.................................................13
Chapter 5 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and the
Nobel Prize....................................................................17
Chapter 6 Other Uses for DNA Forensics.......................................21
Chapter 7 Problems........................................................................25
Chapter 8 Ethics and Law...............................................................27
Chapter 9 DNA Collection and Databases.....................................31
Chapter 10 The Innocence Project....................................................35
Introduction
Originally, science did not make its way into everyday life very often.
Only scientists and physicians read journals, and the public only came
in contact with scientific facts when they were personally affected. Today,
however, science bombards us from everywhere, and courts are no excep-
tion. As everything from frozen embryos to the rights of those medically
“brain dead” are decided in court, and our laws begin to regulate science,
these decisions become very crucial.
Thus, we need to know and understand these cases and the science
behind them.
As we move into the future, science will present itself in the courts
even more. As the individual decisions made in everyday life become
difficult, courts will have to step in to make these decisions easier for us.
Understanding the cases in this book and their background, will help
us to understand the future as well.
Timeline
When DNA testing first began, blood samples were needed to analyze
the living cells (white blood cells), but today, smaller and smaller samples
(skin cells, cells left in a fingerprint, a swab from inside the cheek, or a
piece of bone left in a body long dead) are being used.
Things have evolved even further where DNA can be extracted from
just a single cell or a fingerprint.
23 and
me begins
PCR was used for Ancestry testing
1996: Helps ID a
1984 Jeffries does testing small
National Academy serial killer
first blot amounts of DNA
of Sciences Say DNA
1985 chromosome evidence Leading to: Iceland
is reliable Low copy DNA genome
1986; COLIN 1994 Touch DNA
PITCHFORK Romanoff
1993 Old stored DNA
murder bones found
Kary Mullis
1987: developed Test for paternity DNA facial
Tommy LeeAndrews PCR sold in pharmacies formation
First US case Nobel prize CF gene located
for chemistry
CODUS
first DNA
database
First innocence
Project