My Opinion on Newborn Screening: Don’t Do It.
My cousin’s wife just gave birth to a new baby boy. Congratulations. “We are now going to cut you in the sole of your feet to take a good amount of blood samples for testing for the newborn screening option. So we are going to tell you what genetic diseases or failings your child may have.” Yeah right….
I have another cousin who 8 years ago had his daughter get a newborn screening result with some hard to pronounce hard to remember diagnosis which meant in short… DO NOT DRUG THIS CHILD. This child is ALLERGIC TO DRUGS and may be terribly compromised, injured or die when given DRUGS.
I said no to all newborn screenings to all my children and my future children because first: it is injurious and painful. Second: the results are USELESS to us, we avoid drugs as if they were poison anyway. We use food instead of drugs which is much much safer. Of course in the case of an emergency room situation we may consent to drugs, but so far, there has been absolutely no need yet.