How your DNA is falling into private hands - Science - www.theage.com.au

How your DNA is falling into private hands - Science - www.theage.com.au: "If you are under 34 and were born in Victoria, a private company has your DNA on file - and people are worried. Tom Noble reports.
A child's birth is a special moment - the labour, the joy, the chaos. And about 48 hours into a new life, each baby has a medical test that has saved countless children's lives.
Blood from the baby's heel is soaked into an absorbent card and then tested for a range of rare, usually treatable conditions. Most parents hear nothing more and life goes on.
But what becomes of the cards? In Victoria, they are tested and stored by Genetic Health Services Victoria, a company set up 16 years ago. It is paid by the State Government to do the tests, yet believes it owns the cards, which date from 1965. All Victorian babies were tested from about 1970.
The Parkville company ultimately controls who can get access to the blood, and DNA, of more than 2 million people born in Victoria. Its collection is the largest in Australia and the only one not in government hands.
'I don't believe it is appropriate for the state to grant ownership of its citizens' DNA to a private company,' Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson said."

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Here are the States that Require NBS:
http://genes-r-us.uthscsa.edu/nbsdisorders.htm

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You are not Powerless! Use the Barking Dog to Contact Your Congressman and Senators
and Forms available to request destruction of child’s stored blood samples


Forms are now available to Texas parents who want the state to destroy stored blood samples collected as part of a routine “heel stick” for screening of newborns for certain disorders. The samples could be used for medical research or other purposes.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has been storing the blood samples indefinitely since July 2002 without parents’ knowledge or permission. But a new law passed this year after an article in the American-Statesman about the practice requires the state to inform parents about the practice and destroy samples upon request.

The form can be obtained online or by calling the health department toll-free at (888) 963-7111, extension 7333, or by mailing a request to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Newborn Screening Laboratory, MC 1947, P.O. Box 149347, Austin, TX 78714-9347.

Starting Aug. 1, the department will include this information with the newborn screening sample collection kits ordered by hospitals, birthing centers, doctors and midwives.

The stored dried blood spots are kept at Texas A&M’s School of Rural Public Health in Bryan and contain no names or other identifying information. The IDs are kept at the health department and are not released to researchers without parental permission, the health department said.

As of Monday, the department said it has received requests to destroy samples for 85 children.

As of June 2009, 5.4 million samples have been stored. Usually, there are two samples for each newborn, one collected at birth and the other, one to two weeks later.