Geneticists to Study Adam Lanza’s DNA


Will studying Adam Lanza’s DNA help prevent future tragedies? That may be Connecticut Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver’s motive after requesting that the University of Connecticut study Adam Lanza’s DNA.

While the exact details of the research project remain hush-hush, experts believe that Lanza’s DNA will be studied in order to detect genetic mutations or abnormalities. Lanza’s DNA and entire genome could be studied in order to search for associations with mutations or abnormalities which would allow for increased aggressive or violent behavior, reports New York Magazine.

Adam Lanza has risen to national and international infamy after carrying out a mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newton, Connecticut. The shooting, which took place on December 14, 2012, left 20 young school children and 6 adults dead and has sparked national outage and an intense debate on improving gun control legislation in America. Lanza’s exact motives for carrying out the shooting are still unclear at this point in time.

Arthur Beaudet, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, told ABC News that the study of Lanza’s DNA would likely try to “detect clear abnormalities of what we would call a mutation in a gene…or gene abnormalities and there are some abnormalities that are related to aggressive behavior.”

Beaudet believes geneticists should be doing this type of research because there are “some mutations that are known to be associated with at least aggressive behavior if not violent behavior.”

Yet some experts have expressed concerns about the study and say that research findings could unfairly label people with similar genetic markers.

Harvard psychology medical professor Harold Bursztajn was also interviewed by ABC News, and said that:

“Given how wide the net would have to be cast and given the problem of false positives in testing it is much more likely we would go ahead and find some misleading genetic markers, which would later be proven false while unnecessarily stigmatizing a very large group of people.”

Inquisitr readers, what do you think? Do you think it’s wise to study Lanza’s DNA in order to prevent future tragedies, or do you think it could lead to certain individuals being unfairly singled out?

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