October 2017 Starbucks Challenge

During the semester we feature a technology with potential legal, social and/or ethical  implications and ask:

What’s YOUR answer?

One $25 Starbucks gift card awarded per challenge based on what we feel is the most judicious response to the highlighted technology, below. 

Put your answer in the Comments. Deadline to be eligible for this month’s Starbucks gift card is October 25, 2017. 

Last week, an autopsy report for former New England Patriots tight end and convicted murderer, Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide in his jail cell earlier this year, revealed he suffered from a severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  This finding raised issues about whether evidence of such a degenerative brain disease could have been used as a defense or mitigating factor in his murder case. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/aaron-hernandez-cte.html?_r=0.  However, a major limitation of such evidence is that such a malady could not be detected in living persons, only on autopsy.  But this week researchers at Boston University identified a biomarker of CTE that can be detected in living persons with the disease    https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/buso-rip092517.php.  How might such biomarkers be used in criminal and tort cases, and what challenges do you foresee in the legal use of such evidence?

Feel free to use additional reliable sources to support your arguments.