Entire Transcript in Adobe Acrobat Format - National Reference ...

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about not going back, right?
DR. MURRAY: Well, I think you are not hearing
what we are trying to say here.
I also want to make a conceptual point, Alex,
and that is if you talk to privacy experts, particularly
for an issue like tissues, DNA samples, tissues containing
DNA, there is not a bright line distinction between those
samples that are wholly anonymous and those samples that
are not. I mean, if I had access to DNA fingerprint
databases then I might be able to link this particular
sample even though every piece of otherwise identifying
information has been stripped from it simply because I can
do a DNA fingerprint from this tissue.
It is really a matter of how difficult it
becomes to go back from what I have in my hands, from
tissue sample with or without additional information, to a
specific individual's identity. It is a continuum rather
than a clear and bright line. I think that helps -- that
helps me, at least, to think of it in that way.
So the question becomes what protections can we
put in place that would reasonably assure that a person
whose sample with or without other information has gone
forward to a researcher and can count on that not being
then subsequently identified.