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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

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

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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