Showing 4 posts tagged dna

He’s eager to be released, as you can imagine, after all these years. He’s kind of going to be Rip Van Winkle — he’s never held a cell phone; Reagan was president when he went in. There’s going to be a lot of adjustments, but he’ll be fine.

Houston lawyer John Raley, who works with the Innocence Project • Discussing the imminent release of convicted murderer Michael Morton, who is expected to be released today after DNA evidence exonerated him from the crime of killing his wife in 1986. DNA evidence implicates a convicted felon who has also been tied to a similar 1988 murder. Morton, meanwhile, was convicted on circumstantial evidence and otherwise had no history of violence. Enjoy your freedom, Michael — they have these things called iPhones now, and they’re awesome. (thanks Michael Cote for the tip) source (viafollow)

While grateful to have the information — Isabel received further testing and she doesn’t have the disease (cystic fibrosis) — the Mankato, Minnesota, couple wondered how the doctor knew about Isabel’s genes in the first place. After all, they’d never consented to genetic testing.

It’s simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.

The government has your baby’s DNA

(Genetic testing for newborns started in the 1960s with testing for diseases and conditions that, if undetected, could kill a child or cause severe problems, such as mental retardation. Since then, the screening has helped save countless newborns.) more here

I don’t care that this started in the 60’s I’ll bet ACORN/Obama has something to do with it. Calling Michelle Bachman! Yoo Hoo!

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people…. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow (1998) (via thegildedcage) (via atangolover) (via metheliving) (via cocknbull) (via bmckinney)