Key Points
I assumed that this was for my childs best interest and for the best interest of public health, says Lovaglio, a pastor in New Jersey..
Lovaglio has joined a federal class action against the New Jersey Department of Health and its Division of Family Health Services, which oversees the states newborn testing program..
The suit asks the court to bar the Department of Health from keeping blood samples after screening is completed, unless it obtains informed consent from parents to keep the blood for specific, disclosed purposes.. Nancy Kearney, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health, which includes the Division of Family Health Services, told WIRED via email that the agency does not comment on pending litigation...
When Lovaglio learned earlier this year that New Jersey police departments have purportedly used newborn blood samples to help investigate crimes, she was unsettled..
Last year, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender discovered that state police had allegedly obtained a newborn blood sample from the Department of Health and performed a DNA analysis that allowed investigators to link the babys father to a crime that occurred in the 1990s..
