Newborn DNA samples to be destroyed

The state will destroy all DNA samples taken from newborns without parental consent between the years 2002 and 2005, officials announced Tuesday. The movement settles a lawsuit filed by parents against the Texas Department of Health Services and Texas A&M for secretly storing and doing research on newborn blood samples. The destruction of 4.5 million samples will be complete within 120 days. Every baby in Texas is screened for 29 birth defects. Parents in this lawsuit do not have a problem with that. But in 2002, the state decided to keep the blood samples, without the parents' consent, to use for research and other unnamed reasons.