Spanish Scientist Puts Genetics to Work to Find Missing Children

Summary: This article is about a scientist named Dr. José A. Lorente, and how he used and is using DNA sequencing to link found children to their parents. His idea is to form a database with the DNA of all the parents with missing children, so it can be matched even if the child is found years later. His foundation, named DNA-Prokids has reportedly reunited "about 550 children with their families, most of them in Guatemala and Peru." This has been done with free DNA tests for parents and DNA collection kits. The foundation has also helped stop over 200 illegal adoptions, in which the people selling the child are not actually the parents. Lorente thinks that all adoptions should have DNA tests before selling. Lorente has worked on big cases like identifying the DNA of Columbus, but for him, he feels much better in finding missing children for distressed parents.

Relevance: In term 2, we discussed DNA sequencing and how you can compare DNA sequences to find similarities. Dr. Lorento is using DNA sequencing and comparison for a different purpose than relationships in evolution, finding missing children.

Article: Putting Genetics to Work to Find Missing Children
Author: Suzanne Daley
Published: August 3, 2012
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/world/europe/spanish-scientist-puts-genetics-to-work-to-find-missing-children.html?pagewanted=all