1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am concerned about the National Institutes of Health collecting Americans' private medical records from federal and commercial databases to build a registry tracking those with autism. This is an unacceptable invasion of privacy and overreach by the government. People's personal health information should be protected, not gathered into a database without consent. Furthermore, the stated goal of determining the cause of autism by September is unrealistic according to experts. Rushing this study by compiling massive amounts of private data raises ethical issues and seems unlikely to provide credible answers in such a short timeframe. I urge you to reconsider this program which violates civil liberties and medical privacy rights. There must be other ways to research autism that do not infringe on citizens' personal information and freedoms. Please put a stop to this misguided data collection effort.