Routine DNA Tests For Newborns Mean Looming Privacy Problems

pogopop77 writes "CNN has an interesting story about how 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. However, many states store that DNA information indefinitely, and even make it available to researchers with little or no privacy safeguards. Sometimes even the names are attached! Here is information on state-by-state policies (PDF) of the handling of the DNA information."

Comments

Re:avoiding hospitals from now on

[alen]

until 100 years ago when pre-natal care became accessible to a lot of people something like 30% of women would die during child birth or from complications of having a child. and the child mortality rate was something like 20% of children dying before 1 or 2. all the natural birth people are like the anti-vaccine wackos.

my grandparent's generation went through WW2 in the old USSR and almost every single person i've met who has given birth from the late 1930's to the early 1950's has had a child die either in the womb, during child birth or before the age of 5 due to lack of nutrition. and a lot of people had abortions at the time because they didn't want to go through the experience of losing a child