IT'S MY DNA!
Baby DNA and Newborn Screening
...[M]ost parents are completely stunned when they find out that their child's blood is being held by the State. They have no recollection and they think it's unlawful.
Dr. Sharon Kardia, University of Michigan, September 23, 2009.
Photo from 2005 MN Department of health provider manual
One FL baby says "Help! The Gov't Has My DNA"
Newborn screening is the most widely performed type of genetic testing in the United States today. . . . Most states, including New York, do not require parental consent. . . .
Most newborn screening programs, including New York's program, store residual newborn blood samples (bloodspots) and use them for research.
"Genetic Testing and Screening in the Age of Genomic Medicine (Exec. Summary), NY Dept. of Health.
Whether you like it or not, a complete [genomic] sequencing of newborns is not far away.
Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, October 26, 2009
Press Releases
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November 18, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn.—This past Saturday was supposed to mark the first day that baby genetic test result destruction was to begin in Minnesota, marking a historic victory for the protection of private medical information and genetic privacy.
eNews Commentary
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September 26, 2013
October 1 is a phony deadline. Ignore it. Nobody has to sign up for Obamacare. Absolutely nothing has to happen on October 1. Instead, October 1 is the first day to refuse to enroll in Obama's exchanges (refuse2enroll.org). In six days, you can begin your own personal Obamacare resistance campaign. Our motto: Resist. Repeal. Reclaim.
eNews Commentary
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September 05, 2013
The government wants every baby’s genetic code. Today the National Institutes of Health announced federal grants totaling $25 million over five years to four institutions to develop a process to sequence the genome – the DNA – of every child at birth.
eNews Commentary
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August 29, 2013
"The NSA is not the only agency specializing in surveillance. State government health officials are profiling children and cataloging citizens in massive government databases without the patient's or parent's consent. That's the gist of our new 50-state report, released last week:"Patient Privacy and Public Trust: How Health Surveillance Systems are Undermining Both."
Press Releases
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August 28, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn.— For the past eight years, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom has been researching health departments in all 50 states to find out how they use funding from the federal government to obtain and store citizens’ private medical information—in most cases, without patients’ consent.
Press Releases
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August 21, 2013
Today, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom is releasing the findings of one of its most important works to date. For the past eight years, CCHF has been researching health departments in all 50 states to find out how they use funding from the federal government to obtain and store citizens’ private medical information—in most cases, without patients’ consent.
National Reports
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August 21, 2013
CCHF has release a new Policy Insights Report: "Patient Privacy and Public Trust: How Health Surveillance Systems Are Undermining Both" Written by Twila Brase, President of CCHF, it reveals the scope and hidden nature of state government health surveillance systems. Using a variety of methods over eight years, CCHF gathered data from all 50 states and D.C. on four major government patient-tracking systems. This data has now been published by CCHF to alert the public to government surveillance and to urge state legislative action to protect individual privacy and consent rights.
Press Releases
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May 08, 2013
The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org) announced a huge victory today with the defeat of Senator John Marty’s (D-Roseville) newborn screening language.
This is a list of all the data the MN Department of Health collects and how they use it.
CCHF President, Twila Brase, was published in the Pioneer Press on April 17, 2013 regarding legislation in the Minnesota House and Senate that would grant authority for DNA and personal medical information to be collected, stored and used for research WITHOUT individual consent. It has now been APPROVED by the Senate but still will need to be heard by the House before it can go to the Governor. Protect your Privacy! Sign the NoBiobank petition!
