Stored Tissue Samples: Public Policy Implications

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We live in an era in which countless tissue samples are collected each day from patients in doctors' offices, medical clinics, and hospitals. Thousands of other samples are provided every day for biomedical research. In addition, numerous men and women in prison and in the military provide samples for purposes they hope will never be realized: conviction for crimes or identification of their bodies at death. In each case the blood, cheek cells, sperm and ova, neonatal blood spot, or other type of tissue collected -- whether voluntarily or under coercion -- may be banked in biomedical labs for multiple purposes. The essays in this timely, thought-provoking book investigate the ethical, legal, and policy implications of these practices.Focusing on the debate over informed consent versus the needs of researchers, the first essays analyze the implications of stored tissue samples in clinical settings and research settings such as the international Human Genome Diversity Project. Next, professionals in medical history, medicine and biomedical research, philosophy, biomedical ethics, and law provide multidisciplinary perspectives. Additional essays discuss special issues in the use of stored tissue samples in forensic and military settings; two of these are written by professionals who helped establish the DNA registries at the FBI and the Department of Defense.

The practices connected with stored tissue samples are variable, the competing interests are important, the stakes are high, and the implications are seemingly without end. Stored Tissue Samples attempts to clarify and answer the multiple questions raised by these rapidly evolvingpractices.