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  • From: bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] DNA database from birth
  • Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:43:20 -0800 (PST)

The article from today is from New Zealnad , but earlier this year, a similar
bill was brought up in the house. With the Dem super majority I have no
doubt it will pass. The forst link is from the article, the second link is
from the proposed U.S. legislatrion

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Home » World » Breaking News » Article
Privacy concerns over baby DNA database
AdvertisementEmail Print Normal font Large font November 26, 2008 - 10:20AM

Advertisement
New Zealand's privacy commissioner has sounded warning bells over a massive
DNA database of blood samples taken from newborn babies.

Since 1969 DNA information taken from nearly two million New Zealand babies
has been stored indefinitely in an Auckland facility.

The samples were taken from a heel-prick test of almost every baby born in
New Zealand as part of a national screening test for 28 preventable disorders.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has made a submission to the Health
Ministry saying the samples could also be used for genetic screening for
employment or criminal investigation purposes.

Shroff told Radio New Zealand the samples should be routinely destroyed.

"If a government decision was made that the collection should continue to be
held indefinitely, then I think it becomes essential it be transferred to a
separate body who would be governed by legislation and there would be really
strong rules around safeguarding those DNA samples," Shroff said.

New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott said access to
the samples should be restricted to those agreed to at the baby's birth.

"When they (parents) have a newborn baby at the hospital the last thing they
are thinking about is that when this blood sample is taken that years down
the track the state may want it for crime identification purposes," Bott said.

"It was not given with full and informed consent," he said.




http://news.theage.com.au/world/privacy-concerns-over-baby-dna-database-20081126-6hx2.html


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National “DNA warehouse” bill passes

April 11th, 2008

Passing the House of Representatives on a voice vote, S. 1858 has been sent
to President Bush for signature. The Newborn Genetic Screening bill was
passed by the Senate last December. The bill violates the U.S. Constitution
and the Nuremberg Code, writes Twila Brase, president of the Citizen’s
Council on Health Care (CCHC). “The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is
essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential
subject of government-sponsored genetic research,” she states. “It does not
require consent and there are no requirements to inform parents about the
warehousing of their child’s DNA for the purpose of genetic research.
Already, in Minnesota, the state health department reports that 42,210
children of the 780,000 whose DNA is housed in the Minnesota ‘DNA warehouse’
have been subjected to genetic research without their parents’ knowledge or
consent.”

The federal government lacks the Constitutional authority as well as the
competence to develop a newborn screening program, states Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.
(R-TX). He states that all hospitals will probably scrap their own newborn
testing program and adopt the federal model, whatever its flaws, to avoid the
loss of federal funding.

“Drafters of the legislation made no effort to ensure that these newborn
screening programs do not violate the privacy rights of parents and
children,” Dr. Paul noted.

Ms. Brase has called on President Bush to veto the bill.

Additional information:

http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0025







  • [Homestead] DNA database from birth, bob ford, 11/28/2008

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