FC: Ass'n of American Physicians and Surgeons: Nix kid ID cards!

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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.




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