DNA Detectives

Genetic fingerprinting is already being used to identify criminals. Can the rest of us be far behind?

In October a 24-year-old woman who had been comatose for more than three years gave birth to a baby girl. It was only a few days before the delivery that the staff at the woman's nursing home in Lawrence, Mass., even discovered that she was pregnant. Under the circumstances, the pregnancy had to have been the result of rape; yet the woman was uniquely unable to name her assailant. If she couldn't speak, however, the blood of her daughter could. Shortly after the baby's birth, the police drew a sample of the infant's blood, then took voluntary samples from male relatives...

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