Why I will never donate blood again

The Seattle Times: Blood center to collect DNA of donors (2007-01-28)

For the first time, the Puget Sound Blood Center will begin collecting, testing and storing the DNA of blood donors.

Past the "we won't share this information, records are not directly identifiable by donor, it's for a good cause" b.s., we get to:

But there is no law preventing police or courts from seeking the records, Butterworth conceded.

"We are not above a court of law," Butterworth said. "We would defend the donor's right to privacy as well as we could, but, obviously, we are not going to do anything illegal."

There you have it. PSBC gets to research DNA, I get to keep my inner elbow free of needle sticks.

Maybe if blood collection agencies see a drop in donors, they will rethink this.


Written by Andrew Ittner in misc on Sun 28 January 2007. Tags: commentary