I did the same, but have not swabbed. My primary concern is that of privacy. I d...

unreal37 · on Oct 24, 2011

You leave DNA everywhere you go. Every time you sit in a chair, every time you drink from a cup, pee in a public urinal, open a door handle ... You give blood tests to your doctor, and don't demand to see the privacy policy of the lab and all the handlers in between.

You worry too much. :) No one wants your DNA - and if they wanted it they could easily get it. Take the test and possibly save a life.

Edited: to add a smiley face and improve the tone, since this was intended to be a "don't worry be happy" message and not "you're a bad human being". Sorry about that.

sundarurfriend · on Oct 24, 2011

You might or might not be correct, but it's quite difficult to get your point across with that kind of a tone. Talking in favor of someone suffering from leukemia doesn't automatically grant you rights to spew personal insults at someone.

cgarvey · on Oct 24, 2011

I didn't see any personal insults, mostly just logic delivered unapologetically.

sundarurfriend · on Oct 24, 2011

I don't know when exactly the post was edited, but the version that was there when I replied did contain personal insults and had a much harsher tone.

Now it's turned out to have arisen from good intentions, so all is well.

FraaJad · on Oct 24, 2011

Dey, chill!

why are getting worked up about nothing? that too when the comment was not meant for you?

morrow · on Oct 24, 2011

I was watching some police documentary show a long time ago - and it was either the FBI or the police that needed a murder suspect's DNA - they brought him in for questioning, and asked him for a sample, and he declined. They had pretty compelling circumstantial evidence, so what they did was follow him around for 2 or 3 weeks to all of the public places he went, looking to get a left-behind hair, a swab of spit, a used soda can, food, any sample of his DNA they could use to test it against the murder scene evidence. This guy knows this is going on, and is playing cat and mouse with them, covering all of this DNA tracks - being careful to not leave anything for them.

He eventually absent-mindedly spits on the sidewalk and they dab it up with cotton swabs, run the tests, and get the match, and arrest him. My point is, if somebody wants your DNA, even if you spend your entire day methodically covering your tracks because you're a murderer and you know it will send you to jail for life, you will eventually leave a trace somewhere. It's just the nature of our biology - it isn't the case that your DNA is a secret, and your body is a vault, and submitting this test is giving away that secret.

In the case of submitting it here, I cannot imagine that any government agency that has the need for your DNA for some particular reason would think this was the best way to get it.

(Hope this didn't serve to just make you more paranoid...)