Posted 2/06/2010 05:15:00 PM by Douglas

Put on your tin-foil hats, folks. The government isn't nefariously gathering people's DNA without their knowledge, are they? Naw, probably just babies:

Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it's often done without the parents' consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.

In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies' DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center.

Many parents don't realize their baby's DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents' concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it's appropriate for a baby's genetic blueprint to be in the government's possession.

What? Resist the government and its desire to acquire, document, and retain the most private part of you humanity without your consent? What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out Texas has already sued and won to get the samples destroyed.

The state will destroy an estimated 5.3 million blood samples legally collected from newborns but kept without parental consent under a federal lawsuit settlement announced Tuesday.

The number of newborns involved is unclear because multiple samples are received from each by the Texas Department of State Health Services, department spokeswoman Allison Lowery said.

Typically, two samples are taken from each child, but there could be more, she said. The disputed samples cover a period of about seven years starting in 2002. The state conducts newborn screening to detect disorders or illnesses.

I'm sure that's the first thing they do with the samples, ya know, for the children, but why is this done without consent? And it really makes no difference if the samples are destroyed or not (other than making a hilarious headline of destroying baby-blood). Once the samples are processed, what's to say the information isn't retained just because the samples are destroyed. A ONE Terabyte hard drive is now 86 bucks so don't think any information like this, once collected, is going anywhere.

< /tin foil hat>