RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pass the tissue: restoring researcher access to legal human donations
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP jme-2023-109033
DO 10.1136/jme-2023-109033
A1 Leston, Meredith
A1 De Lusignan, Simon
A1 Hobbs, Richard Frederick
YR 2024
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2024/07/04/jme-2023-109033.abstract
AB The sensitivity of human tissue and previous instances of misuse have, rightfully, led to the introduction of far-reaching oversight and regulatory mechanisms for accessing, storing and sharing samples. However, these restrictions, in tandem with more broad-based privacy regulations, have had the unintended consequence of obstructing legitimate requests for medical materials. This is of real detriment to ambitions for biomedical research, most notably the precision medicine agenda. As such, this paper makes the case for facilitating authorised researcher access to human tissue and associated data along practical medical ethics lines, detailing how liberating samples from unfit regulations, re-evaluating biobanks, diversifying considerations for donor benefit-risk, future proofing donor consent and flattening hierarchies of donation acceptability equate to a more cohesive and respectful means of managing biological samples and information than is achieved at present.Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.