Science and Morality

Changes in science and technology come so rapidly anymore that we don't have time to understand the full ramifications of them before we are forced to deal with them.

Tony Frudakis, a molecular biologist, has been doing some groundbreaking work in DNA encoding. With a sample, he can predict someone's race with 99% accuracy, iris color with 96% accuracy, and is close to having accurate prediction of height and skin color. He has used this to help in a few forensic cases which is what he has been developing it for, but business is not booming. Many people are scared of the implications of this and fear it could lead to someone "proving" that one race is superior to another. Even the prosecutor from one of the cases he helped solve is uncomfortable with it.

But even the people one might think should be his biggest allies aren't supporting that, including Tony Clayton, the special prosecutor who tried one of the Baton Rouge murder cases. Clayton, who is black, admits that he initially dismissed Frudakis as some white guy trying to substantiate his racist views. He no longer believes that and says "had it not been for Frudakis, we would still be looking for the white guy in the white pick-up truck." But then he adds, "We've been taught that we're all the same, that we bleed the same blood. If you subscribe to the (Frudakis) theory, you're saying we are inherently unequal."

He continues: "If I could push a button and make this technology disappear, I would."

I understand some of the discomfiture, but I strongly disagree that Frudakis is saying people are unequal. I think his work shows that people are different and that some of those differences can be found in our DNA. The science of our DNA is plunging ahead rapidly and we need to have a national dialogue about it. People need to be educated on the topic to eliminate some of the misconceptions. It's going to go forward whether or not people are comfortable with it or like it, so people need to know what DNA is and what DNA tests can/cannot do in order to form at least somewhat informed opinion.