Newborn screening for medical disorders is becoming an increasingly common practice. This seems like a good thing; however, along with the potential benefits of screening, there are concerns that some states are not obtaining parental consent before doing the screening. There are also legitimate concerns that state governments will store the child's DNA in a database.
No one should be surprised to learn that there is a federal program funding newborn screening, and readers of this blog should not be surprised to learn that legislation extending this program was rammed into law in the lame duck session of Congress.
However, Senator Rand Paul was successful in getting a victory for parents' rights by attaching an amendment to the bill forbidding the use of a newborn's blood spots in federally funded medical research without parental consent.
More details on this issue and Senator Paul's amendment are available from WORLD magazine.
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PDFTags: privacy, health care, Parrental Rights, Rand Paulacy