Recently I read a column about how some parents in Canada come to the United States for the birth of their children. Parents are not able to get good medical care in Canada in some situations. (I can not remember where I read this column.)
Judy Aron reports on a recent federal law which makes me wonder if now parents will be trying to have their children born in Canada. In Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns' DNA Judy explains:
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Last week President Bush signed into law a bill S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 which will allow the federal government to begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months. This is a move by the government to initiate the establishment of a national DNA database. (Wasn't there an episode of X-File like this?) The justification for this law is that it represents preparation for any sort of "public health emergency." The bill states that the federal government should "continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening" and "maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening... ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly." Like we want that information on the Internet too right?
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(Update I - 12 May 08)
My brother found a lecture by Mark Steyn which I think may have been what I vaguely remembered: “Is Canada's Economy a Model for America?”
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Technorati tags: baby, DNA
5 comments:
This information is WAY TOO SCARY!
First, they insist on numbers to identify people. Now, the DNA. I think we can't go much further unless we start putting marks on people's right hands or foreheads.
You know, for safety.
*shudder*
This kind of stuff is scary.
I wouldn't mind so much if some government agency offered to provide a service, as an option, but this unilateral, everyone has to submit, is wrong.
The article I think you are referring to on Canada's health care system is a lecture by Mark Steyn which can be found here. The quote I like was about a mother of quadruplets who flew to Montana because there was no room in any neonatal units in all of canada. "After all, you can’t expect a G-7 economy of only 30 million people to be able to offer the same level of neonatal intensive care coverage as a town of 50,000 in remote, rural Montana."
As for DNA screening, I can't believe anyone thought this was a good idea and I'm horrified we hadn't heard about it until now. When is this supposed to start? We've got a baby coming sometime in the next 4 weeks.
Derek, thank you for the link to the Mark Steyn lecture.
My understanding is the law takes effect in six months, so you are fine.
Good luck.
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