Tissue Banking in a Regulated Environment – Does This Help the Patient?

The difficulties with 'retained organs' in the UK have resulted in a new legislation relating to human organs, tissues, and bodies - the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Human Tissue Act Scotland 2006 are now in place. The new laws apply to a wide range of activities including transplantation, education, clinical audit, the practice of autopsies, anatomical examination and others, including the use of human tissues in research. Pathobiology research that uses human tissues is now undertaken in a regulated environment in the UK. The details of these regulations are described and the consequences discussed. In the second part of the paper the patient's views and expectations in this new setting are forwarded.