Edited by M G Hansson. Uppsala University, 2001, free, pp 93. ISBN 91–506–1472-X

• Hansson MG
• editor The Use of Human Biobanks. Ethical
• Social
• Economical
• and Legal Aspects

This booklet (freely accessible online at http://www.bioethics.uu.se/biobanks-report.html) documents a public hearing organised by a Swedish research project on the various social and ethical issues raised by the use of so called biobanks—that is, large collections of human tissue samples. There is considerable interest among researchers, the biotech industry, and society at large in using biobanks for the continued investigation of genetic health factors that is now following the completed mapping of the human genome. Central issues are: the responsibility of biobanks or users of these to protect tissue donors in various ways; how these responsibilities should be balanced against business and research interests, as well as against the interests of people in general in case of conflict and, not least, what procedures of informed consent (including the hard question of the scope of the consent) should be deemed as …