A controversial database containing DNA samples collected from newborn babies in New Jersey is facing legal scrutiny after it was found state law enforcement agencies kept backdoor access to the information.
For decades, the state has gathered and saved these DNA samples without specifically informing parents, thus accumulating a considerable database of genetic material.
Two New Jersey mothers have started a federal class-action lawsuit opposing the collection and access of personal infant data without appropriate consent, indicating increasing public concerns about intrusive uses of baby blood samples for confidential purposes. (Related: New Jersey SUED for secretly HARVESTING blood from newborns without consent from parents.)
Expectant parents usually invite doctors and nurses into the delivery room, not police officers. However, law enforcement agencies have backdoor access in New Jersey. The alleged intrusion begins within 48 hours after a child's birth, when maternity ward workers make a tiny puncture in an infant's heel to obtain blood for laboratory testing.
This screening allows for early identification of rare diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease. All American states do this, but what makes New Jersey different is that most other states later destroy the paper cards they employ to gather the dried bloodspots of infants. New Jersey keeps the blood.
New Jersey has kept samples from each baby born since the 1970s
Without informing the parents, the state has kept samples from each baby born since the 1970s, making a covert database with millions of entries.
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Blood samples remain on file for 23 years while the DNA data could last longer on third-party servers.
New Jersey does not mention exactly what happens to the data, but the state provides itself permission to share the genetic markers it gathers with anybody it wants for any reason, including law enforcement agencies.
The risk of New Jersey abusing this data is not speculative, as the state has already delivered a blood sample to police agencies without a warrant on multiple occasions, leading to arrests.
Parents can technically drop out of the screening if they object on religious reasons. But hospitals in the state aid the government by concealing that this option is available to families, with many recounting being threatened with having their child taken away by Child Protective Services if they refuse to allow the hospital to store their child's DNA.
A half-page brochure distributed by the New Jersey Department of Health even claims that all infants are "required by law" to provide blood to the state. The brochure does not say anything about long-term storage.
Erica Jedynak, a mother from Boonton, was shocked on her delivery day. Jedynak did not find out until later that the state kept her son's blood on file for unexplained purposes.
"There is something morally not right that the government would be tracking him or almost assuming the guilt of babies. I have to protect him from what appears to be a very creepy database," Jedynak said.
The covert scheme also worries Hannah Lovaglio, a mother from Cranbury.
"It is a little off-putting to think that my child’s blood is sitting in some state facility in New Jersey. I try to keep track of all of my kid’s things, but that is just totally out of my control and unsettling," Lovaglio said.
Both mothers have filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, with the public interest law firm the Interest for Justice representing them in the case.
The case relies on previous lawsuits that prohibit intrusive uses of baby's blood samples without parental consent. One such case from Texas found people guilty for delivering DNA data to the Department of Defense for a national registry. Another case from Michigan and Minnesota found people guilty for selling newborn blood for research.
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Watch the video below to learn more about the Department of Justice suing police departments for the use of DNA databases.
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