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Nine Families Sue State
Of Minnesota
Allege Violations of State Genetic Privacy Law in Newborn Screening
Allege Violations of State Genetic Privacy Law in Newborn Screening
St. Paul/Minneapolis – Citizens' Council of Health Care (CCHC) announced that a lawsuit has been filed today against the Minnesota Department of Health in response to the Department's violation of the 2006 state genetic privacy law by its collection, storage, use and dissemination of newborn blood and baby DNA.
Nine families have come together to sue the State of Minnesota.
According to the lawsuit filed in Hennepin County Court today, the plaintiffs allege that the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health have “collected, stored, used, and disseminated Plaintiffs children's blood and genetic information without written informed consent, in violation of Minnesota law, and in particular Minn.Stat. §13.386.”
Furthermore, plaintiffs allege that, “as of December 31, 2008, Defendant Minnesota Department of Health had stored 819,282 dried blood spot baby samples; had stored 1,567,133 records of the results of newborn genetic screening; and had used 52,519 dried blood spot samples for research.”
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