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Comment by progre | Hacker News Reader

In Sweden the "blood bank" sample taken on all newborn children was used to identify the murderer of foreign minister Anna Lind in 2003.

This was very controversial at the time. When my first child had her blood sample taken a few years later they assured me that it was used for screening purposes and for annonymous medical research only. I reminded the nurse of the Anna Lind case and she got extremly upset with me.

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All newborns in California since 1966 have also had their DNA stored. You can request the destruction as a parent or for yourself here: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DGDS/Pages/nbs/nbsconse...

How did the nurse get upset?

She got very huffy and flat out denied that the blood bank dna was used to identify the murderer. He wans't covicted using that DNA, true, but the identification was no secret.

The police had made 2 arrests of persons they later had to release at that point, so I guess they didn't like to take any chanses with the third.

It should be said that the general opinion outside of medical reserarch was supportive of the police.

That's interesting, almost like the nurse was personally invested in this somehow. Not financially, but maybe morally?

I guess she had some integrety and loyalty to her proffesion. She like everyone else had been told that this was a registry for research and screening, and absolutely not the first step in some police state wet fantasy.

She hated that they had made her into a liar.

The registry is an enourmously valuble asset for the medical community but parents have to consent to the blood sample, so the police getting access was problematic to say the least.

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