http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010825-5267482.htm Letters 2001-08-27 04:15:37 Proposed ID cards bad for D.C. students, parents Thank you for Deborah Simmons' timely Aug. 17 Op-Ed column "Apartheid on the Potomac," on the D.C. Council's proposed youth identification card resolution. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons agrees that the proposed ID cards and resulting governmental database would severely threaten the individual liberties of both students and parents. Frankly, we do not believe that the rationale for the system is to help find lost children. How would fingerprints help in such cases? They might, of course, be useful in identifying a child who, once found, could not give his name. For this purpose, however, parents can voluntarily go to a police station and have their children fingerprinted. But even this would only be useful if nothing could be found that already had the child's fingerprints on it. The chances of that happening are very slim. Perhaps the government wants to use the database to find youthful criminals. If this is the case, why don't advocates just honestly state their purpose? Perhaps they could suggest an even more effective method, such as forcing everyone to give a DNA sample just in case he ever were to become a criminal suspect. In truth, if the plan were explained honestly, people would reject it. They really don't trust government, now or ever, with that kind of power. The fact that the proposal is being promoted disingenuously is all the more reason to reject it. It's refreshing to see a member of the media who is concerned with privacy rights. AAPS, a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country, strongly supports privacy rights. This month we are filing a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services to halt implementation of the new medical privacy regulations written under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. These regulations facilitate the formation of a nationalized database of medical records and gives government unprecedented access to sensitive medical information. These "midnight regulations" will severely damage the confidential patient-doctor relationship by forcing physicians to risk criminal penalties if they fail to release records upon governmental demand. Such demands could be based on a mere whim, and no search warrant would be required. Again, thank you for the excellent column. JANE ORIENT, M.D. Executive director Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Inc. Tucson, Ariz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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