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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies
Trumping Communitarianism: Crime Control And Forensic Dna Typing And Databasing In Singapore, Victor Toom
Trumping Communitarianism: Crime Control And Forensic Dna Typing And Databasing In Singapore, Victor Toom
victor toom
Liberalism and communitarianism have figured prominently in discussions of how to govern forensic DNA practices (forensic DNA typing and databasing). Despite the prominence of these two political philosophies and their underlying values, no studies have looked at the governance of forensic DNA practices in a nondemocratic country governed by a communitarian logic. To fill this lacuna in the literature, this article considers Singapore as an authoritarian state governed by a communitarian philosophy. The article highlights basic innovations and technologies of forensic DNA practices and articulates a liberal democratic version of “biolegality” as described by Michael Lynch and Ruth McNally. It …
Hidden In Full Sight: Kinship, Science And The Law In The Aftermath Of The Srebrenica Genocide, Erica Haimes, Victor Toom
Hidden In Full Sight: Kinship, Science And The Law In The Aftermath Of The Srebrenica Genocide, Erica Haimes, Victor Toom
victor toom
Terms such as “relationship testing,” “familial searching” and “kinship analysis” figure prominently in professional practices of disaster victim identification (DVI). However, despite the dependence of those identification technologies on DNA samples from people who might be related to the dead and despite also the prominence of the notion of “relatedness” as a device for identifying the dead, the concepts of “relatedness” and “kinship” remain elusive both in practice and in analyses of the social and ethical aspects of DVI by DNA; they are hidden in full sight. In this article, we wish to bring kinship more to the fore. We …