Big Brother that is. The insidious nature of government continues its natural course of concentrating power. For those of you with kids, you will find the following article interesting. From CNN come this piece by Elizabeth Cohen,
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
Got that? I’m sure they give the tests some sort of acronym so as to not alarm the happy parents as to the test’s true nature. It gets better though,
In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies’ DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center.
In a couple of generations, Voila, we have a national DNA database to track everybody. Awesome!
Genetic testing for newborns started in the 1960s with testing for diseases and conditions that, if undetected, could kill a child or cause severe problems, such as mental retardation. Since then, the screening has helped save countless newborns.
Over the years, many other tests were added to the list. Now, states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to indefinitely, depending on the state.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions…
Brad Therrell, who runs the federally funded genetic resource consortium, says parents don’t need to worry about the privacy of their babies’ DNA.
“The states have in place very rigid controls on those specimens,” Therrell says. “If my children’s DNA were in one of these state labs, I wouldn’t be worried a bit.”
Yeah, the only time I start to worry is when some government flunky tells me there’s no need to do so. These two paragraphs were immediately followed by this one,
The specimens don’t always stay in the state labs. They’re often given to outside researchers — sometimes with the baby’s name attached.
So much for privacy. Eumaois – Are you concerned about your little swineherds?
