DNA Dog Tag or Genetic ID?

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METAL DOG TAGS BEARING A SOLDIER'S NAME, RANK and serial number for identification date to the early part of the century, when battles were still being fought with bullets and bayonets. But combatants in today's wars are not just killed, they are sometimes obliterated, dog tags and all. So last week the Army began collecting blood and tissue samples from new recruits, part of an ambitious "genetic dog tag" program that will eventually enable pathologists to identify the smallest tissue specimens by cross-matching to genetic samples stored on file. The Pentagon aims to collect specimens from all 2 million active service members by the year 2000.

The Army says the need for such a system was brought home by the gulf war, which presented a number of dicey identification problems. In one case, a pound of tissue turned over by the Iraqis had to be matched against beard shavings taken from a missing soldier's electric razor. But civil libertarians fear that this might be the precursor to a national DNA screening program. The Army insists that the samples will not be tested for AIDS, drug use or anything else. In the event of a subpoena issued as part of a criminal investigation, however, the Army would be forced to comply.