X-Message-Number: 10869
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 09:54:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: and for $349.95 we'll preserve grandpa's dna

From the December 1,1998 edition of the National Post newspaper
By Drew Hasselback

  Unless you're O.J. Simpson or Bill Clinton, chances are no one is going
to take a sample of your DNA before you die.
  Unless, that is, you employ the services of DNA Analysis Inc. of
Cincinnati. The company has teamed up with area funeral directors to pitch
a DNA collection and storage service to relatives of the newly departed.
  For $349.95 (US), a funeral director will collect hair, blood and saliva
samples from a body. The samples will be sent to DNA Analysis, which will
store them at minus-80 Fahrenheit for 25 years.
  Funeral directors will recieve a finder's fee of about $50 (US). The rest
goes to DNA Analysis.
  Terry Travis of Riddle Funeral Home in Vermilion, Ohio, said this genetic
fingerprint could prove useful if someone needed to know whether they were
at risk for heredity or genetic diseases.
  Mr. Travis said his family-owned funeral home mentioned the new service
in an ad in a local newspaper. He has not sold any loved ones on the
service yet, perhaps because he has had no funeral clients since the ad
ran.
  "I've certainly heard of nothing like this here in Canada," said Laura
Hamilton, spokeswomen for the Ontario Funeral Service Association. "It'll
be certainly interesting to see if this is something consumers respond to."

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