Texas Ordered to Destroy Thousands of Blood Samples

Infant Blood Taken Without Consent

This sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it actually happened in real life.
Not long ago, a group of Texas parents discovered that blood samples drawn from their infants were being stored indefinitely without their consent. They thought the blood samples were being destroyed after they were screened for various disorders and birth defects. But that wasn’t the case. Some were used for “unspecified research projects.”

So the group filed a federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services as well as the Texas A&M University System. Federal court determined this was a violation of the plaintiffs’ 4th amendment rights against unlawful search and seizures.

When I think of unreasonable search and seizure, I think of arbitrary intrusions of homes, cars, or persons by law enforcement officers or government officials. I don’t think of hospital personnel unlawfully taking and using someone else’s blood, especially an infant’s. That’s kind of creepy.

The background

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with collecting blood samples from newborn babies. The state of Texas has done this for decades. Most parents appreciate the comfort that comes from knowing the results of early screening of their newborn babies’ DNA.

But what some parents didn’t appreciate was finding out that stored infant blood could be used without their knowledge or consent for research. What’s worse, they were concerned that personal information associated with the blood samples could be misused.

As a parent, I don’t think I’d be comfortable knowing my baby’s blood was sitting on a shelf somewhere, accessible to anybody with the right credentials.


Millions will be destroyed

Only 5 plaintiffs were involved in the lawsuit. However, over 5 million blood samples will be destroyed. That might seem like a waste of valuable research material, especially when the blood may have played a role in the discovery of some new disease or treatment. But if the blood samples shouldn’t have been there in the first place, destroying them really can’t be considered a waste.

Whether or not the millions of blood samples should have been there is the heart of the lawsuit. Stricter laws were passed recently giving parents a choice of opting out of the blood storage situation. The laws also strengthened patient privacy rights. But the parents that gave birth prior to the law’s passage didn’t have any of these rights.

That’s why millions of blood samples obtained and stored prior to the implementation of these new laws were also ordered destroyed.

Who’s right?

Obviously in this case, the federal government felt there was a clear-cut violation of constitutional rights. And I tend to agree with that.

But what about the people who could have benefitted from medical advancements that might have been discovered had that blood samples been made available for study? Do they have any rights?

I don’t know the answer. But I do know that if anyone wants my blood or my child’s, they’ll have to ask me for it. That way I can decide its fate.

What do you think?