Senate Bill to Expand Screening of All Newborn Infants: What does this mean?
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http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=s110-1858
Type of Content: Article Our Federal Overlords, ever solicitous of our health and welfare, graciously submit for our approval: S. 1858: Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 Section 4 - Sponsor: Sen. Christopher Dodd [D-CT] Cosponsors [as of 2008-04-29] Sen. Christopher Bond [R-MO] If anyone wanted to develop an accurate and complete identity database of all American citizens, he could hardly choose a better method than to collect DNA samples from all infants at birth for "screening." Yet another reason federal power should be held to constitutionally enumerated limits: once the Federal authorities are empowered as benefactors and guarantors of life and health, all manner of intrusions can be advanced in benevolent guise--only later to be turned to tools of control. This is not a paranoid rant, but a cool observation that accumulated data identifying all citizens will prove useful to the authorities for many purposes. Data gathered for one purpose is often turned to other purposes: this is known as mission creep. For example, we are asked to provide a Social Security Number by many agencies and private entities, despite promises at the inception of the Social Security program that the number would only be used for the program itself. This number is a Federal ID number. Once newborn screening becomes routine, DNA sampling will be a feasible and accurate means of universal identity verification. This is a means by which gathering and storage of genetic information can be introduced without raising privacy issues. Once the existence of this database is well established, challenges to the collection, storage and use of this data will be much more difficult. Genetic material belongs to each individual, not to the government. Government has no right to collect this material unless the individual agrees. However, once the practice is widely accepted, and a compelling state interest in the use of this data (e.g. prevention of terrorism) can be plausibly argued in court, there will be little chance of preventing the use of genetic screening data as an identification method. Why does this matter? Why shouldn't our Federal Overlords have the capacity to identify us accurately? If we aren't criminals, what do we have to fear? It is very simple. The principle is clear: each individual owns himself, his genetic material and his identity. No government or entity outside the individual owns his identity. In practice, however benign the gathering of data, the existence and routine use of this data enables its abuse, opportunistically or nefariously. The venality of politics is warning enough that we ought not empower government beyond what is necessary to perform its delimited functions: that we ask government to do more than this at our peril. Unscrupulous political leaders have, can and will abuse the public trust to their own ends. Why should this case be any different? More to the point: why should we trust our most private possessions, our identities and those of our children, to their assertions of benevolence? Read »
Created 30 weeks 3 days ago
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