Press Releases • Jan 2012 • Storing and Using Newborn DNA—Without Parent Consent

CCHF Responds to MDH Press Release on Baby DNA

St. Paul/Minneapolis—Today, the Minnesota Department of Health issued a press release on their plan to begin destroying baby DNA as required by the Minnesota Supreme Court. Twila Brase, president of Citizens' Council for Health Freedom, provides the following comments:

"As opposed to Commissioner Ehlinger's quote, the newborn residual bloodspots are not a 'valuable public health resource,' they are the DNA of every newborn citizen, which the Department has been claiming as theirs. They've been storing, using, and sharing them for research without the consent of parents. It would be illegal for the State to collect and store the DNA of adults, but they have been doing it to up-and-coming adults, in other words, newborns, without authority and in violation of state law for years..."

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