Genetic data has been a powerful crime-solving tool for decades, but law enforcement’s ability to harness it has expanded in recent years, with the growth of public and private genetics databases, including consumer ancestry repositories. The use of a public genealogy site by law enforcement entered the spotlight a few years ago with the arrest of the Golden State Killer, who had eluded capture for decades. While so-called forensic genetic genealogy has since led to multiple convictions, it raises many ethical questions, such as: how to balance society’s interest in finding criminals against individuals’ interest in pursuing genetic testing especially since some of this information can be obtained for law enforcement purposes without their knowledge? These and other ethical questions are explored in a new chapter in Hastings Bioethics Briefings, our free online reference for journalists, policymakers, educators, and the general public. Read “Law Enforcement and Genetic Data.”
 

With more than half a million Americans deaths from Covid-19, many of them preventable, reparations are in order to provide various forms of compensation to the victims of preventable Covid, who may experience lifelong health effects, write M. Sara Rosenthal, of the University of Kentucky, and Hastings Center fellow Arthur Caplan, of NYU. Read “How to Make It Right: Covid Reparations.”

Many countries are using or considering immunity certificates that would document whether a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19 or recovered  from the disease. Such documents are seen as key to allowing individuals to safely resume travel and other normal activities, but they also risk “prolonging the pandemic and increasing harm,” write Natalie Kofler, of Harvard University, and Francoise Baylis, of Dalhousie University. They outline four steps that governments should  take to incorporate ethical commitments into a vaccination certification policy. Read “Covid Vaccination Certificates: Prospects and Problems.”