IN JAPAN, a culture where cremation is mandatory, a funeral company is about
to offer much more than the customary charred bones: it is also offering
grieving relatives a way of storing the deceased’s DNA in their memorial
tablet.
“With the spread of genetic record cards for medical treatments, our samples
will help people complete their family’s DNA history,” says Hideo Wakayama, a
spokesman for funeral firm Sekise of Nagoya. The DNA could also be useful in
disputes over parentage and claims to blood ties with the deceased, he adds. But
one day the sample could, in theory at least,…
