Biobanking - Ethical legal aspects of biobanking

9 important questions on Biobanking - Ethical legal aspects of biobanking

Is there already a steady framework for medical research on human tissue? Is ethical approval required by law?

No, still evolving.
No ethical approval not required by law.

What are the international guidelines available?

Unesco declarations (1997/2003)
HUGO statements (human genome) (1998/2002)
Council of Europe Recommendation (2006) on research on biological materials of human origin
OECD-guidelines (2009) on Human Biobanks and Genetic Research Databases (HBGRDs)

What are the general stakeholders for biobanking?

• Participants
• Management biobank
• Researchers and other users
• Sponsor of biobank
• General public
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Summarize what is important when you work for biobank? (2)

- Most regulations are soft law = non binding
- Self regulation on national level is important!

What are the underlying principles of international regulations?

  1. human rights (e.g. autonomy, privacy, non- discrimination)
  2. general ethical principles (e.g. not paying participants, reporting important findings to participants, benefit sharing)
  3. general governance principles (e.g. transparency, accountability, involvement of stakeholders, for how long do you store the materials)

What are ethical concerns about biobanking?

  • Privacy issues with DNA => historical abuses and mistrust, inequities in health outcomes.
  • Do you really give informed consent when the future use is unknown? => commercialization => broad consent
  • How are you able to withdrawal consent?
  • How to deal with the burden/risks of obtaining the tissue (biopsie)
  • How do you show results to the patient/family, and which results? => incidental findings

What are pros and cons of broad consent and is it allowed?

Pro
- less patient needed
- scientific progress
- cost effective

Con
- less autonomy
- difficult to have oversight that only ethical research is done with it
- potential misuse
- less trust

Yes it is allowed

What are issues with incidental findings?

  • Finding something in research setting does not mean that is it clinically relevant
  • Some patients want to know genetic findings while others don't
  • Researchers do not have the capacity to report everything to the subject

What are the recommendations for incidental findings?

  • Only findings with clinical utility
  • Limit the possibilities to find incidental findings
  • Patients should be able to opt-out on incidental findings.

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