The Institute for Justice (IJ) filed a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey after the state was secretly retaining blood from newborns.
The program allows the state to “use the DNA from the blood samples for any reason, without informed consent from parents,” according to IJ.
When babies are born in the state, doctors are required by law to take blood from the newborn and test it for various diseases.
After completing the testing, New Jersey’s Department of Health retains the leftover blood for 23 years.
“The state does not ask parents for their consent to keep their babies’ blood, failing to even inform parents that it will hold on to the residual blood,” IJ explains. “The only way parents could learn about such retention is by proactively looking it up on one of the third-party websites listed on the bottom of the card they’re given after the blood draw.”
New Jersey may choose to sell the blood to third parties, give it to law enforcement authorities without a warrant, or sell it “to the Pentagon to create a registry—as previously happened in Texas,” IJ noted.
According to IJ Senior Attorney Rob Frommer, “Parents have a right to informed consent if the state wants to keep their children’s blood for decades and use it for purposes other than screening for diseases.”
“New Jersey’s policy of storing baby blood and DNA and using that genetic information however it wants is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of all New Jersey parents and their newborns.”
Although all states have a blood screening requirement, “What makes New Jersey’s program so uniquely disturbing is the complete lack of safeguards for future abuse and the lack of consent, which leave the program ripe for abuse,” explained IJ Attorney Christie Hebert. “Parents should not have to worry if the state is going to use the blood it said it was taking from their baby to test for diseases for other, unrelated purposes.”
