Seattle police use family DNA, latest science to identify killer 52 years later
I&#x27;ve been part of the group who got asked to give a DNA sample in the Nicky Verstappen [1] case. This was voluntarily, and I reluctantly did this (for [mostly ethical] reasons which would make this post very long), and had a good discussion about it with the 2 policemen who came to my house to take the sample. The technique used (family DNA) is the same in that case as in the topic we discuss.<p>Now, I knew I didn&#x27;t do it, and I knew it would be highly unlikely (but not impossible) that a male member of my family did this (not emotional but practical reasons: my uncle didn&#x27;t quite live near the region, my father was almost blind and could barely walk, and my cousin was like 10 or so when this happened). So I didn&#x27;t quite get the point. However, because I volunteered, the police could flag my entire family off the list of suspects. This narrowed the net around the perpetrator.<p>Thanks to people like me, not to mention the hard work of hundreds of policemen, the case is now solved (or well, to be precise there&#x27;s a suspect on trial; not yet a convict). Because <i>there was a match</i> with a family member of him. And as you can read at [1] the bird had flown cause it got too hot around him.<p>I recently got a letter from the government that my DNA got destroyed. Whether you believe that letter or not is up to you; during my interview I had the chance to decide for it to be kept or destroyed after the case was final, and I went with the latter. I&#x27;d like to hope my choice is respected by my government.<p>I get it though that with common law and in the USA you gotta be very careful when talking to the police but my experience in The Netherlands with the police has been positive or in some occurrences neutral at worst. Could be white male privilege though. YMMV.<p>As for<p>&gt; If the host is the planet, what is the claim on the other guests to your body.<p>On Earth&#x27;s &quot;body&quot; the other guests are alive; you&#x27;re dead. They can contribute to the future of planet earth and its inhabitants while your time is done for. So it makes sense that whatever is done with your remains and inheritance goes to the inhabitants, with a (slight) prejudice towards your direct ancestors (family). The good news is, our legal systems have law to provide for such as it is.<p>As for the other inhabitants in your body, we&#x27;re at the point where pets have a few rights whereas cattle and such have barely none. Lets not think about the rights of bacteria and parasites and such (they don&#x27;t even have a CNS to begin with, and while their usefulness is up for debate, they&#x27;re not exactly a dying breed).<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Death_of_Nicky_Verstappen" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Death_of_Nicky_Verstappen</a>