Newsom signs newborn DNA storage law, prompted by CBS News California investigation
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that was prompted by a decade-long CBS News California investigation into the state's newborn genetic biobank.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that was prompted by a decade-long CBS News California investigation into the state's newborn genetic biobank.
Lawmakers quietly amended a bill prompted by a decade-long CBS investigation into California's Newborn Genetic Biobank. They removed the part that requires the state to reveal who is using our DNA for research and why.
The California State Capitol doesn't generally work the way people think it does. We're following bills prompted by our reporting, to show you how things really work inside California's Capitol.
California law says genetic testing companies have to get your permission before they store, use or sell your DNA, but the state itself doesn't have to get your permission and has been storing DNA samples from every baby born there since the '80s. Lawmakers want to change that, but face an uphill battle.
Should you have the right to know that the state is storing your child's DNA and researchers or law enforcement may use it without your consent? California parents are one step closer to getting that right. UPDATE JAN 18, 2024: SB 625 died in the Senate Appropriations Committee after the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) estimated it would cost between $3.8 million to $4 million to administer the provisions of the bill. Neither CDPH nor Senate Appropriations publicly provided any evidence to support those estimated costs.
Should you have the right to know that the state is storing your child's DNA and that they may sell it to researchers or give it to law enforcement without your consent? The sponsors of a new bill think you should.
In the wake of the controversy over allegations that San Francisco police used a victim's rape-kit DNA to later identify her as a suspect in a crime, there are renewed privacy concerns related to California's biobank, which stores DNA samples from nearly every child born in the state.
It's a little known fact: California stores newborn blood spots collected from every child born in the state. Parents don't have to consent, so many don't even know. So what is the state doing with them and why didn't they ask permission? CBS13 is getting answers.
Many people don't realize that California keeps a DNA sample from nearly every baby born in the state. But CBS 13 has confirmed that DNA from those stored Newborn Bloodspots helped crack this 2007 cold case.
If you were born in California after 1983, your DNA may be stored by the government and may even be in the hands of outside researchers.
This might come as a surprise to California natives in their 20s and early 30s: The state owns your DNA.
