Visionary Urban Tactics

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns' DNA



quote:
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President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Described as a "national contingency plan" the justification for the new law S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is that it represents preparation for any sort of "public health emergency."

The bill states that the federal government should "continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening" and "maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening... ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly".

Sections of the bill also make it clear that DNA may be used in genetic experiments and tests.
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Here's some more info...
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1858

Thoughts???

[quote]This bill passed in the Senate by Unanimous Consent[\quote]

dayum, that's crazy! This honestly doesn't bother me as much as other things (i.e. Patriot Act) that Bush has done, but I wonder what the ACLU has to say about this? Also, I wonder if the identities of the new borns are attached to the DNA? If it was just an anonymous database I wouldn't really care that much, but if names are attaced to it then I think tis a lil sketchy...

you heard about the minn database? got the dna of 670,000 kids, got 1.4 million kids in the database since 1986.

Fuck that......I wonder if it's voluntary or mandatory.

/\/\/\ yeah, that would be another big sticking point for me. If not every one has to do it then I would think there's less potential for some sort of wierd system that no one can escape from coming about.