Genetic Privacy: Should Law Enforcement Have Access to Your Newborn’s Blood?

Many parents and concerned citizens would probably be surprised to learn that their children’s blood samples are being accessed by law enforcement agencies without their knowledge or consent.

In 2021, the State Police of New Jersey sought access to a blood sample from the Newborn Screening Laboratory, a sample belonging to a child who had been screened nine years earlier as a newborn. They wanted to perform DNA analysis so they could try to connect the child’s father to a crime committed nearly 25 years earlier.