{"id":2495,"date":"2008-04-29T12:13:37","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T17:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2008-04-29T12:13:37","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T17:13:37","slug":"dfl-privacy-schmivacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2495","title":{"rendered":"DFL: “Privacy, Schmivacy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick – someone find us a penumbra.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twila Brase – who happens to be a neighbor of mine in District 66B – is crusading against one of the great overreaches of Minnesota government power out there – the State’s (actually the DFL establishment’s) push to take childrens’ DNA information, without parental permission, to build a huge genetic database of Minnesota (for now) children.<\/p>\n

This would change existing law, as Twila writes in a op-ed\u00a0in today’s Strib<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The 2006 Minnesota Genetic Privacy Law does what all of us want it to do. It requires written informed consent prior to the collection, storage, use, or dissemination of our private genetic information by government and others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Specifically, the law states that our genetic information may only be collected and used if we give our written informed consent; it may be stored only for as long as we consent; and it may only be shared with others, including researchers and pharmaceutical companies, with our consent. The consent to allow sharing for specific purposes expires in a year and must be signed and dated.<\/p>\n

This is all good news — unless Senate File 3138 becomes law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there’s the rub:<\/p>\n

This legislation would allow the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to exempt the collection, storage, use and sharing of newborn DNA from the informed consent requirements of the genetic privacy law<\/strong>. Without informed consent, MDH would be allowed to contract with hospitals statewide to prick the heel of newborns, use and analyze the baby’s DNA into adulthood, and give the DNA-filled blood spots to researchers and others.<\/p>\n

If this legislation passes, the informed consent protections of today’s genetic privacy law will not protect any baby born after July 1, 1997 — the day health officials began building a government “DNA warehouse” for the purpose of genetic research. On that day, without legal authority or parent consent, MDH began keeping baby blood and storing it indefinitely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“But it’s only government!\u00a0 What could the problem be?\u00a0 Aren’t you happy to give your privacy for a Better Minnesota<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

\n

Today, according to health officials, the DNA of more than 780,000 children has been filed and claimed as state government property. Their parents have no idea…Senate File 3138 violates parent rights, privacy rights, patient rights and DNA property rights. Citizens young and old have the right to informed consent and genetic privacy. They also have the right to not be research subjects, to not incriminate themselves through their genetic codes, and to be free from involuntary genetic profiling and genetic registration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If Pawlenty fails to use his influence or his veto pen to protect the genetic privacy rights of citizens, individual DNA and private genetic codes will become government property. What will the governor do?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We don’t know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it’s up to all of you to help us figure that out.\u00a0 Call the Governor.\u00a0 Get him to veto this atrocity.\u00a0 And call your legislator, find out their position, and let yours be known.\u00a0 It makes a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick – someone find us a penumbra.\u00a0 Twila Brase – who happens to be a neighbor of mine in District 66B – is crusading against one of the great overreaches of Minnesota government power out there – the State’s (actually the DFL establishment’s) push to take childrens’ DNA information, without parental permission, to build a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}