Word: hartling
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Agassiz Professor of Zoology Richard C. Lewontin '50-'51 and Professor of Biology Daniel L. Hartl object to the forensic use of DNA finger-printing, or profiling. They contend that the accuracy claimed by current statistical techniques is overstated...
Lewontin and Hartl have fueled controversy over the statistics, not the techniques, of DNA profiling. "The foundation of the molecular biology is well laid," says James F. Crow, professor emeritus of genetics at the University of Wisconsin. "The difficulties are matters of the interpretation" of the profiles...
...Instead, Hartl argues that the use of databases created with profiles of people representing only certain races is inadequate. "There are clear differences within races; however, there are also differences in subgroups of the races...
...Hartl contends that using specific databases representing certain racial groups, as recommended by the NRC report, biases the numbers in incorrect ways. Hartl feels strongly that it is appropriate to leave out race...
Lewontin and Hartl say in their 1991 paper that the use of racially-biassed reference databases to calculate frequencies "is liable to potentially serious errors because ethnic subgroups within major racial categories exhibit genetic differences...