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Guthrie Cards - Australia's DNA Database

Posted by michael on from the drop-in-the-bucket dept.

bobo12345 writes "There was an interesting show (transcript here) on ABC TV's (Australia) Catalyst on Guthrie Cards - paper filter cards containing blood spots from almost every Australian born since 1970. These samples are routinely taken and stored in hospitals to screen for diseases like Cystic Fibrosis. Australian police have accessed the DNA database without consent in the past, successfully prosecuting an unpleasant incest case. This led to the destroying of all Guthrie Cards by the hospital whose original cards were obtained under a search warrant. Makes you wonder where your genetic material is stored, and which authorities have access. No alien DNA has been discovered on the Guthrie Cards (yet)."

3 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Curious... by spumoni_fettuccini · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How many other hospitals [in differant nations]have this practice and if the Red Cross keeps a sample, along with all of your personal information they aquire when one donates blood. It would seem to be a really easy thing to accomplish.

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    -- Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
  2. Re:Who was Guthrie? by mikecheng · · Score: 3, Informative

    Guthrie did work with work into PKU (PKU=Phenylketonuria. An inherited human metabolic disease that is characterized by inability to oxidize a metabolic product of phenylalanine.) and related diseases.

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    Cool, but useless.
  3. Re:Who was Guthrie? by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Funny
    > For my edification, who was the Guthrie after which the cards were named? When I first saw the article I thought "Why the hell would Woody be involved in something like that?"

    Well, we got there and we had a warrant, and we figured one big pile of DNA samples on Guthrie cards was better than 5000 little piles of DNA samples at each hospital, so rather than send ours down, we decided we'd bring everybode else's up. That's what we did.

    Drove back to the police station, had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from ABC's Catalyst show. He said "Officer, we found your name on a box containing half a ton of Guthrie cards and we just wanted to know if you had any information about it!"

    You can get anything you want from the hospital's DNA.
    You can get anything you want from the hospital's DNA.
    Walk right in, they're around the back,
    Underneath the floor by the server rack,
    You can get anything you want from the hospital's DNA...