[Cryptography] Pseudonymous private sperm donation – The problem with colliding rights (and collective punishment)

[Ray Dillinger]

The problem with this is that DNA decrypts itself when used.

No matter how the donation is accepted and processed, whether the 
fertility clinic even knows the identity of the donor or not, a few 
years later you have two human beings whose DNA is 50% identical, and 
there are medical screening groups, genealogy interest groups, and law 
enforcement groups that keep databases of DNA and routinely screen to 
find nearest genetic relatives.

If a genetic parent and a genetic child both want to find each other 
they go to any of the ubiquitous DNA-testing companies out there, pay 
their $$$, and get a test. They get a list of their closest known 
genetic relatives and whichever of them goes last, will get a list that 
includes the other.  If the one that went first checks in afterwards, 
they are notified of a newly discovered genetic relative.  The secret is 
out.

If somebody has a mutation that puts them at risk of stroke, heart 
attack, liver failure, or cancer, one of the first six things a medical 
team does is ask "who else do we need to warn about this?  Who else has 
likely inherited this same risk, from this person or their ancestor?"  
They turn to the DNA database, and discover that another human being has 
genetics that are 50% identical.  Meaning, that person is offspring, 
parent, or sibling.

Likewise if someone has robbed a bank but left a few skin flakes and an 
arm hair at the scene of the crime, the police forensics lab turns to 
their database and says, "whose DNA is this?" and even if the criminal 
has never had his DNA sampled, most likely one or more of their 
siblings, cousins, parents, children, aunts, uncles, or grandparents 
has.  Depending on what pattern of people come back 50%, 25%, or 12.5% 
similar, they narrow down their list of suspects.

There's no secret that can be kept by any cryptographic means when the 
whole point of DNA is that it decrypts itself.


Bear