heel prick
Newborn Screening

All 50 states already require all newborn babies to be screened for certain diseases, most notably PKU, which causes mental retardation that can be prevented entirely by putting the baby on a special diet.  Tests are being developed for more and more diseases.  Should newborn screening be limited to a few serious and preventable diseases or should it be expanded as much as possible?  Should testing be mandated even for diseases for which there is no effective treatment or where the test shows a risk, not a certainty of getting the disease?  For example, newborn screening is detecting mild forms of cystic fibrosis, which may not actually cause illness.  The topic here is what screening should the government mandate for all newborns, not what choices parents should have.  Make sure to focus on newborn screening, not prenatal diagnosis.
  If your opinion is that some newborn screening is good and some is bad, your conclusion must argue what principle you think we should use to draw the line between the two.


http://www.newenglandconsortium.org/flashcast/nbs_home.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050221/news_1n21babies.html

http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/BriefingBook/Detail.aspx?id=2268

http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/background/newborn_screening_schulman.html

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/161/8/767

http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=248

http://www.med.umich.edu/mott/npch/pdf/NPCH%20vol%201%20issue%204%20June%2020%20FINAL_REPORT.pdf

http://www.newbornscreening.info/felsi.html


http://www.wired.com/medtech/genetics/news/2008/05/newborn_screening

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5550/2272.full

http://www.livescience.com/10542-newborn-screening-birth-fight.html

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/287446

http://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5313a1.htm (note the section on evidence for risks of harm)

http://www.inforipple.com/2010/09/children-of-the-state/


http://www.springerlink.com/content/f83146021160n0l6/fulltext.html