Pawlenty may accept privacy compromise

TwinCities.com (Ea.)

The Minnesota Department of Health is again seeking legal authority to keep blood samples of newborns for medical research, but this time it's offering a compromise to appease Gov. Tim Pawlenty and a local privacy group.

Proposed legislation would allow the department to keep blood samples — originally taken to check newborns for inherited or congenital diseases — for two years without parental permission........

A bill last session would have allowed the state to keep the blood samples indefinitely unless parents asked for them to be destroyed, but Pawlenty vetoed that proposal.

Health officials believe the governor will accept the compromise.