Minneapolis/Saint Paul - Today, the Minnesota House and Senate voted to eliminate current informed parent consent rights for the storage, use and dissemination of newborn citizen DNA.

Twila Brase, president of CCHC, makes the following statement:

"We call on Governor Pawlenty to veto S.F. 3138. Citizens are not created to be government guinea pigs.

"In complete violation of human subject rights, privacy rights and parent rights, the legislature voted to let the government come into the hospital and take the genetic code of every newborn citizen for research purposes without the express written consent of parents."

"By voting to eliminate the current legal informed consent protections of the state genetic privacy law, the lawmakers just said yes to involuntary genetic research on the public, including genetic profiling.

"As Rep. Tom Emmer emphasized in his arguments against the bill, not only will the health department will be able to store and use the DNA of each newborn, they'll be able to conduct research and genetic profiling on all 780,000 children currently stockpiled in the state's illegal DNA warehouse. This is wrong."

"Governor Pawlenty is the citizens' last line of defense against a huge government genetic research project on the unwitting public. Just say no, Governor Pawlenty."

CCHC Letter to Governor Pawlenty

Twila Brase is president of Citizens' Council on Health Care. She can be reached at 651-646-8935.