Can we test dna left on envelopes?

Angela

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We probably can, but who owns it?

My Heritage founder and owner Gilad Japhet claims to have autographs of people like Winston Churchill Albert Einstein. Does he have the right to test them?

Geneaologists have been clamouring for this for years. I'd love to do it myself on my parents' letters. It would be like having my father and mother back.

At what point, however, do your individual genetics become part of the public domain?

See:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/dna-tests-for-envelopes-have-a-price/583636/

"[FONT=&quot]“Maybe our ancestors did not realize it,” Japhet said, a smile growing on his face, “when they were licking those stamps and the envelope flaps, they were sealing their precious DNA for you forever.” Then he made the big announcement: MyHeritage would soon begin offering DNA testing on old stamps and envelopes.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]He didn’t stop there. If you can test the letters of your grandmother, why not those of historical figures? Japhet is a prodigious collector of autographs, and he revealed that he possessed handwritten letters from Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. In an intriguing if provocative PR move, he promised that “their DNA is coming to MyHeritage very, very soon.”"

"While 23andMe and Ancestry require large vials of saliva for DNA analysis, which are hard to obtain without a person’s cooperation, artifacts are much easier to come by. But extracting DNA from these sources opens up so many new possibilities—some unsavory, some simply uncomfortable. Should you be able to test a parent who refused to play along by digging up an old letter? Or do a secret paternity test on your child, using a cup discarded by the man suspected of having an affair with your wife? Or trace anonymous letters? Or obtain the DNA of celebrities?"

"For these reasons, the companies offering DNA services for envelopes are drawing a line: These tests are not for living people. The only reason, after all, to resort to getting a living person’s DNA from a letter is if the person is not cooperating with a cheek swab or vial of spit—in which case they probably are not consenting."

Uh, excuse me, how would the company know that the person is still alive? Ever heard of lying? God, scientists are such fools sometimes.[/FONT]

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