- Explainer
Could DNA Testing Reunite Immigrant Families? Get the Facts.
Genetic testing offers a potential solution to the crisis, but logistics and privacy concerns pose major challenges.
More than 2,000 immigrant children—some just toddlers—have been separated from their families and are now strewn across shelters in at least 16 states. With no clear end to the crisis, some commercial DNA testing companies are offering to help.
The announcements were immediately met with concern from bioethicists and lawyers.
“I think we should be very wary of any proposals to create a DNA database, even if the intentions are good,” Elizabeth Joh, professor of law at the University of California, Davis, says in an email. (See haunting pictures of where refugee children in the Middle East sleep.)
Questions abound—from privacy and logistics to whether such tests are necessary for reunification. We talked with experts in the field
