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Biobanks, bioethics and concepts of donated blood in the UK
Author(s) -
Busby Helen
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00546.x
Subject(s) - biobank , bioethics , engineering ethics , medicine , political science , engineering , biology , bioinformatics , law
In recent years international bioethics bodies have made prominent declarations about the uses of donated tissue and related information in genetic research 1 . Following the ‘legislative’ mode of bioethics 2 , these organisations have put forward a number of general principles with a view to promoting the fair and equitable use of donated tissue in such research. However, government policies in this field are shaped differently in different national regimes. In this paper, I use recent debates in the UK about a national genetic ‘biobank’ to illustrate how the shape and texture of policy discussions surrounding the use of donated blood for genetic research have been built upon a prior national consensus that regarded blood as a public good.