More than 5 million blood samples used by researchers in Texas since 2002 must be destroyed because they were stored without parental consent, according to a lawsuit settlement signed by a federal court judge in Texas earlier this month (December 14).
"The fact that the court case ruled to have all of them destroyed takes Texas back to square one," linkurl:Richard Finnell;http://genetics.tamu.edu/faculty/rick_finnell of Texas A&M Health Science Center wrote in an email to The Scientist. "It is very disappointing." The linkurl:Texas Department of State Health Services;http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/default.shtm (DSHS) has been collecting blood samples from a small prick on the heel of babies since the early 1960s, and the samples at issue were collected through the linkurl:program;http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/newborn/default.shtm between 2002 and May of this year. The program collects about 800,000 specimens annually from about 400,000 newborns, and screens for 28 different diseases. As of 2002, the state...
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Nevit Dilmen |
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