{"id":249105,"date":"2021-07-14T18:39:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T23:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249105"},"modified":"2021-07-14T16:12:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T21:12:34","slug":"prenatal-testing-china-harvested-data-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prenatal-testing-china-harvested-data-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock report: Prenatal testing company in China harvested data without consent"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>A shocking new report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/health-china-bgi-dna\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters<\/a> has uncovered that a company in China with military affiliations has been harvesting data from its leading non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) from unsuspecting women worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>The Nifty (\u201cNon-Invasive Fetal TrisomY\u201d) NIPT, developed by the BGI Group, began as a collaboration with the communist nation\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) of China as a way, according to the report, to improve \u201cpopulation quality.&#8221; The report alleges that BGI Group has been harvesting \u201cgenetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations,\u201d and claims China has been using the data to gain strategic economic and military advantages.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters wrote, \u201cThe technology could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the report claims Chinese scientists used data harvested by BGI Group to trace genetic distinctions between Han Chinese and persecuted ethnic minorities, like Uighurs and Tibetans. The report found that Chinese scientists were specifically able to map how genetic variations in Uighurs affected their reaction to different kinds of drugs, which is ominous in light of the ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/china-birth-rate-plummets-uighur-genocide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Uighur genocide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/china-three-child-population-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">China unveils \u2018three-child policy,\u2019 but coercive population control continues<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Nifty test, originally marketed in 2013, has become a global leader in NIPTs. Although the tests are not yet sold in the United States, millions of women in 50 countries worldwide \u2014 including 13 European Union countries, as well as Britain, Canada, Australia, Thailand, India, and Pakistan \u2014 use the Nifty test to detect genetic conditions, like Down syndrome, early in pregnancy. More than eight million women worldwide have taken the test to date.<\/p>\n<p>Previously known as Beijing Genomics Institute, BGI Group was originally founded in 1999 ostensibly to participate in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genome.gov\/human-genome-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Human Genome Project<\/a>, an international collaborative research project which concluded in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>According to Reuters, the investigation\u2019s findings corroborate a March government report by the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) that argued the \u201cUnited States should recognize China\u2019s strides towards global leadership in biotechnology and AI as a new kind of national security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/bgi-statement-in-response-to-reuters-report-301328690.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>, BGI group rejected the report\u2019s findings, saying, \u201cAssertions that BGI is motivated by anything other than the advancement of health outcomes are both deeply disappointing and factually incorrect.\u201d The BGI group also claimed that \u201cDNA data collected from prenatal tests on women outside China are not stored in China&#8217;s gene bank,\u201d but that \u201call NIPT data collected overseas are stored in BGI&#8217;s laboratory in Hong Kong and are destroyed after five years.\u201d The distinction raises questions since Hong Kong, although nominally a special autonomous region, has been increasingly subsumed under mainland control in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>The extent of the data usage and violations remain unknown as recent changes to Chinese law have restricted the ability for foreign researchers to gain access to Chinese genomic data. Dr. Rasmus Nielsen, UC Berkeley biology professor who used to advise the firm on genetic mapping and data exploitation, stopped working with BGI Group in 2018 due to the new Chinese government\u2019s new restrictions. \u201cThings are really changing in China,\u201d Nielsen said, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/healthcare-pharmaceuticals\/exclusive-prenatal-test-developed-with-chinese-military-stores-gene-data-2021-07-07\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters<\/a>. \u201cScience used to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A shocking new report from Reuters has uncovered that a company in China with military affiliations has been harvesting data from its leading non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) from unsuspecting women worldwide. The Nifty (\u201cNon-Invasive Fetal TrisomY\u201d) NIPT, developed by the BGI Group, began as a collaboration with the communist nation\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":192459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,4,3473],"tags":[10934,10932,422,10975,10931,10933,433,10936,4957,10935],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shock report: Prenatal testing company in China harvested data without consent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A company with links to the military in China is accused of stealing data from millions of women around the world, according to a Reuters report.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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