There Is a Family Born With No Fingerprints

BBC has covered a very interesting story on “The Family with no fingerprints,” where the men in the Sarker family share a genetic mutation that makes them have no fingerprints.

The family lives in the northern district of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, and not having fingerprints has led to some unusual challenges. In 2010, Bangladesh made National ID cards compulsory for all adults and the database needs a thumbprint. Fingerprints also became compulsory for passports and driver’s licenses, and the father, Amal Sarker, had to get a special certificate from a medical board.

In 2016, the government made it compulsory to match fingerprints with the national database in line to buy a Sim card for a mobile phone.

According to BBC News:

The rare condition likely afflicting the Sarker family is called Adermatoglyphia. It first became widely known in 2007 when Peter Itin, a Swiss dermatologist, was contacted by a woman in the country in her late twenties who was having trouble entering the US. Her face matched the photograph on her passport, but customs officers were not able to record any fingerprints. Because she didn’t have any. [source]

If you want to learn more, head over to BBC for the full story.