February 21, 2005  Debate Precedes Report on Nationwide Newborn
Testing Policy  A federal advisory group is preparing to release
a report that calls for nationwide standardized newborn testing
for 29 extremely rare but potentially devastating diseases and
conditions. Currentyl each state has its own set of tests that
newborns automatically receive, which cover from 4 to 35
different diseases.  The problem, well, there are two, no, three
potential problems: 1) History shows the risks of automatically
administered but untested treatments that caused widerspread
harm than the original condition. 2) False positives for little-
understood diseases can trigger aggressive-yet-useless
treatments. 3) On the other hand, the advocate parents and
families of kids whose otherwise treatable condition went
undiagnosed until it was too late make emotionally powerful and
persuasive arguments for every test possible.  Panel to Advise
Testing Babies for 29 Diseases [NYT]   It seems to me we do this
here in Quebec, to a limited d