DNA "Fingerprinting"
& identification of Los desaparecidos
DNA
Fingerprinting has been used to reunite parents with
their offspring. Following the 1976 military coup in
Argentina, thousands of persons including pregnant women were
confined in detention centers without trial or news of there
whereabouts to their families. Children born in detention were
in effect abducted from their parents ["Los
desaparecidos" or "The
disappeared ones"].
After the Falklands War of 1982 led to collapse of the
dictatorship and restoration of civilian government, several
international organizations used DNA fingerprinting methods to associate these
children with their parents.
Homework:
Two parents (##1 & 2) with missing children ask
whether any of six children (A - F) of the correct
age could be the children of one or both of them. For
each of the children, determine whether they could be
the offspring of (1) #1 only, (2) #2 only, (3)
both #1 and #2, (4) neither #1 nor #2.