At the hospital I went to you have to sign a consent form for them to NOT use your spare parts and pieces as part of a collection the government is doing. Scary. I asked for my placenta and cord, and got neither. I think the midwife just wasn't thinking, but I also feel cheated.

i hear what you are saying. so they think parents will definitely be asked for consent?

i have a lot of thoughts and questions about genetic testing. while i know it can be a boon to humanity, my most recent brush with it was around screening for down syndrome babies. what i came away with was, well, a lot, but in the end two things really stick with me: 90% of people who know they are carrying a down syndrome child abort and many of those seem to tell friends and family they miscarried. having gone through the mill of getting sent for genetic counselling and doing the level two ultrasound and being assured that even if my amnio results weren't back till after the 24-week cut off i could be sent out of state for an abortion -- well, it just kind of seemed like there was a lot of subtle pressure toward abortion and people weren't coming away with decisions they felt exactly proud of. and i do think a lot of this pressure to abort "not perfect" babies has to do with the bottom line. i still worry that our gov's concern about who are children can be to the children's detriment. i came away from the whole down amnio scenario feeling deeply sceptical about government motives in dna testing.