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DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

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31–40 of 136 posts

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#31

> Nearly every baby born in the United States gets a heel prick shortly after birth. Their newborn blood fills six spots on a special filter paper card. It is used to test baby for dozens of congenital disorders that, if treated early enough, could prevent severe disabilities and even death. This almost feels like a scene taken right out of the movie Gattica.

Gattaca. there's no i in dna sequencing.

Gattaca took real world and extrapolated a little to give us a glimpse in the future so we know what to expect and not let it happen.

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#32

> Nearly every baby born in the United States gets a heel prick shortly after birth. Their newborn blood fills six spots on a special filter paper card. It is used to test baby for dozens of congenital disorders that, if treated early enough, could prevent severe disabilities and even death. This almost feels like a scene taken right out of the movie Gattica.

What? That newborns are checked for congenital diseases? How is that anything but normal?

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#33

This is how we found out that my daughter has cystic fibrosis and have been able to treat her from a few weeks after birth. The result is that she'll probably live a normal length life rather than dying in adolescence. So I'm fairly positive on this program...

Why are people downvoting this comment? Even if you think the current system is wrong, you should be thinking of how to fix it without losing the benefit outlined by this commenter.

[deleted]

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#34

This is how we found out that my daughter has cystic fibrosis and have been able to treat her from a few weeks after birth. The result is that she'll probably live a normal length life rather than dying in adolescence. So I'm fairly positive on this program...

Sorry but no, absolutely not.

Please explain how keeping your daughter blood sample forever and selling it helped in any way ?

Running a detection test is what helped your daughter and is not the issue at hands, it's keeping samples indefinitely and selling them that's problematic.

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#35

This is how we found out that my daughter has cystic fibrosis and have been able to treat her from a few weeks after birth. The result is that she'll probably live a normal length life rather than dying in adolescence. So I'm fairly positive on this program...

Why are people downvoting this comment? Even if you think the current system is wrong, you should be thinking of how to fix it without losing the benefit outlined by this commenter.

Because it's not relevant to the issue discussed: storing and selling DNA of Californian born people without them knowing or being told their rights.

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#36
post #32

> Nearly every baby born in the United States gets a heel prick shortly after birth. Their newborn blood fills six spots on a special filter paper card. It is used to test baby for dozens of congenital disorders that, if treated early enough, could prevent severe disabilities and even death. This almost feels like a scene taken right out of the movie Gattica.

What? That newborns are checked for congenital diseases? How is that anything but normal?

Why would it be normal ?

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#37

> Who has access to it? My flippant answer, before reading the article: Basically everyone, probably through a web site where the requestor simply uploads a document (any document) then checks an electronic checkmark next to the words "I pinky swear that I will only use this for good and pure and light-giving purposes." > Who has access to it? After reading the article: Yep, law enforcement and "third party researche…

You can safely assume that google, facebook and data brokers have it.

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#39
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? That newborns are checked for congenital diseases? How is that anything but normal?

Why would it be normal ?

If you have technology to save a child’s life using simple modern medicine why would you not?

Re: DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to it?

#40
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? That newborns are checked for congenital diseases? How is that anything but normal?

Why would it be normal ?

The way many metabolic conditions work is that essential products are not synthesized, or toxic products are not cleared. These can cause unrecoverable damage within hours or days of birth if not treated. So, tests are performed to identify known metabolic conditions to prevent newborns from suffering unrecoverable brain/otherwise damage. This is generally known as "newborn screening" if you are curious to learn more.
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