Right now there is a battle going on in the State of Minnesota with respect to ownership rights of American citizens DNA which is being fought by the Citizens' Council on Health Care.
Twila Brase, the spokesperson for this organization, recently was on the Glenn Beck show attempting to enlighten and educate the public on the assaults which are now going on at both the state and federal levels with respect to Americans; medical information such as the provisions contained within the stimulus package on the establishment of a National Health Care Database, and the even more violative one now being waged in Minnesota over ownership rights of private citizens DNA, and that of their children.
This small, privately funded groups is and has been facing a David and Goliath battle against several medical research facilities, and the huge civic organization, the March of Dimes, who would like to be able to harvest DNA samples from patients in hospitals, including infants, for medical research purposes WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT, and accessible through a "state" warehousing facility.
It appears that these groups and research facilities are attempting to form a public/private partnership with the states in order to house this DNA for what is being represented as "for the good of humanity," in fighting birth defects and genetic diseases, but which also potentially could be used in the future for morally repugnant purposes also, such as selective genetic screenings and abortions, or genetic altering or engineering.
The bill also is rather ambiguous and silent on whether or not these DNA samples then could also be used for other reasons, such as evidence then in criminal proceedings without the issuance of warrants or probable cause thus convicting individuals without affording them the Constitutional protections of due process and meeting evidentiary standards in criminal proceedings.
The state would have custody of these records and samples in a DNA "warehouse."
It also appears that the expenses in maintaining such a warehouse have not also been give even cursory consideration.
CCHC has been fighting in order to place simply minimal "informed consent" requirements within the bill.
But I, as a citizen, believe this fight needs to be expanded in order to provide not merely the "safeguard" of implied consent, but should be mandated to require full disclosure, and "express" consent, a higher legal standard.
Simple implied consent would afford hospital administrators and corporate attorneys to hide such provisions within hospital admittance forms in all the legalese that is already included in such forms.
How many Americans, especially women in the midst of labor, have the presence of mind to truly digest the many pages included within hospital admittance forms now as it is. Express consent forms would require a separate and specific signature form and disclosure, and the risks involved to both patient and in the instance of children, their newborn, and require disclosure of the specific purpose for which the DNA will be used.
My basic question also is why is the state getting involved in this at all, at the taxpayer's expense with respect to warehousing these samples?
If the March of Dimes or Mayo Clinic (one of the research facilities involved) would like access to individual citizens DNA, should this not also be between doctor and patient or guardian, with the March of Dimes and these research facilities then also able to request volunteers for specific, legally sanctioned and regulated research purposes, with laws also strictly formulated and enforced on the storage methods and destruction of those samples and records after the specific research has been concluded?
These researchers must know at this point due to the push now for access to Americans DNA what exactly they hope to achieve with such research.
Limiting through legislation the purposes for which these samples can be used to purely "research" and not in any way "engineering," or as "selective abortion" diagnostic instruments appears to be absent in even minimally addressing this potential can of worms in the legislation as it is now written in its current form.
Below is the link to the CCHC's website, and they could use all the support they can get in fighting this open ended legislation at this point, which is now also spreading to other states throughout the nation:
http://www.cchconline.org/
