In California, a new bill named the 'Genetic Information Privacy Act' is currently being voted on. California Senator Alex Padilla believes that your DNA is your personal information, and "ought to be protected". The bill would only allow one's DNA to be accessed by individuals who are 'specifically named on a consent form'. On the other side of the debate, the University of California is objecting the bill because it would cost nearly $600,000 per year in order to sustain. This is money that the state of California simply does not have.

This is good journalism because of its newsworthiness: proximity of the heart, literal proximity (state of California), currency (it could be passed in the next year), and it is controversial. The author did a good job of including credible sources who are involved in this debate as well as showing a non-biased view by presenting both sides. My personal opinion of this article made it seem a little ridiculous that people even consider a bill like this, I can not understand the importance of protecting your genetic information, when it could be used to help others and has absolutely no risk to you whatsoever, what is the problem? But I guess some people are very concerned about privacy and untrustworthy of some science.