"If a TV programme sets about sequencing the genome of Adolf Hitler the person in modern history who comes closest to a universally agreed-upon personification of evil there are at the very least two questions you want the producers to ask themselves. First: is it possible? And second, the Jurassic Park question: just because scientists can, should they? Channel 4's two-part documentary Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator is not the first time the self-consciously edgy British broadcaster has gone there."
"Having first cast aside ethical integrity by paying Holocaust denier David Irving 3,000 for a lock of hair purporting to belong to Adolf Hitler, the programme's makers then discovered it not to be Hitler's and thus useless for DNA sequencing. Airing just over 10 years later, the producers of this new programme at least made sure to answer the is it possible bit."
Sequencing Adolf Hitler's genome prompts two core questions: whether sequencing is possible and whether it should be done. A prior attempt failed after a paid sample from Holocaust denier David Irving proved not to be Hitler's hair, preventing DNA analysis. The recent project located a blood-stained fabric swatch cut from a sofa in Gettysburg and sought to authenticate the blood. Direct modern relatives declined fresh sampling, but a male-line relative's swab collected ten years earlier gave a perfect Y-chromosome match. Consent for using that earlier swab is unclear. Geneticist Turi King was recruited to extract genetic information.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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