YOUR baby’s DNA is being stored for DECADES in government labs and can be used in police investigations without your permission – and New Jersey parents are now suing for rights to their infants’ blood

Nearly every baby born in the United States has blood drawn to check for risk of more than 60 rare diseases within hours of coming into the world.

What many parents may not know is that these DNA samples can be stored in a government laboratory indefinitely, allowing law enforcement to access the blood to conduct investigations into the child’s relative.

A 1996 cold case was solved last year after New Jersey police collected a child’s DNA without a warrant to investigate the child’s father, attracting the attention of some parents who are now suing state health officials over hoarding practices.

“This is a real parental rights case,” Hannah Lovaglio, a Cranbury resident and plaintiff, told DailyMail.com. This is their body. This is their property taken from them five years ago while they were minors, and the state does not have to provide any justification.

New Jersey can store samples for up to 23 years, while other states like California, Massachusetts and Maine can store them indefinitely.

“It is deeply troubling (that they) take advantage of the helplessness of new parents,” Lovaglio said.

“In your most vulnerable moment, someone takes something from your child, and you have no idea.”

“The New Jersey Department of Health does not comment on pending litigation,” Nancy Kearney, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health, which includes the Division of Family Health Services, told DailyMail.com.

Genetic testing of newborns began in the 1960s with the hope of detecting diseases and conditions that could kill the baby or cause serious problems.

Nurses fill in six places on a special filter card when performing the test which is then sent to the laboratory for testing, but the remaining samples are stored for the specified time allowed.

According to the State of Minnesota’s website, samples are preserved so tests can be repeated and used to identify a missing or deceased child and for medical research.

California began storing samples indefinitely in a state-run biobank where outside researchers can purchase blood since 2000.

The state previously only filled out five spots on the card but increased it in the 2000s.

In December 2020, this was revealed Investigators in California sought access to newborn screening samples for criminal investigation purposes and made at least one arrest using genetic material.

Some states, such as South Carolina and South Dakota, destroy blood spots after a year or once testing is completed.

Other states that store newborn DNA for years have regulations to limit what can be done with the samples, and some, like Alabama and Arizona, allow parents to refuse to keep the blood.

“New Jersey is among the worst,” Brian Morris, an attorney for the Institute for Justice (IJ), which represents Lovaglio, Erika and Jeremiah Jedinak, told DailyMail.com. The biggest problem is that it is a black hole with no controls to control this retention.

Nothing prevents the New Jersey Department of Health from doing anything with the samples.

“This is not just a parent issue, it’s also about digital privacy. The government can come in and take what they want, and we’re trying to protect individuals from that.”

Texas, Minnesota and Michigan have also faced lawsuits over blood storage practices, primarily because parents did not provide consent.

A 2009 Texas lawsuit resulted in 5.3 million blood samples being withdrawn from the state, and now all blood samples obtained after 2012 must be destroyed.

“Texas was sending blood samples to the Pentagon to create national data that would become international,” Morris said.

A 2014 settlement in the Minnesota lawsuit resulted in the destruction of 1.1 million blood samples.

In 2022, Michigan was also sued for destroying three million blood stains, but that lawsuit is ongoing.

While a court order is usually needed to obtain genetic material, the New Jersey Law Enforcement Office of the Solicitor General did not have permission to collect the child’s blood from the database, Morris said.

Morris told DailyMail.com this had happened five to six times previously.

“I think of it this way: We may only have two claims, but to me, it’s a simple lawsuit,” Morris said.

“There is a Fourth Amendment right that ‘protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government’ and that the Supreme Court recognizes that parents have a fundamental right to protect their children and make decisions.

“We’re saying the state is violating that.”

New Jersey has a laboratory in Trenton where samples are sent for testing for the disease, but the warehouse where they are stored is unknown.

The lawsuit claims the lab processes more than 100,000 newborn tests each year.

“Other states have had to change their laws, and New Jersey should do the same,” Lovaglio said.

“Our hope in the lawsuit is that it will be destroyed, approved and more transparent.”