Advanced Biobanking and Biotechnology

Ethical, legal and social issues in maintence of Biobanks

Ethical issues are commonly present in many aspects of Biobanking. The fact that Biobanks deal with human samples, invading an individual autonomy or limiting self-control, provokes a number of ethical issues. Who is actually competent to give informed consent and donate a sample? When individuals donate part of their body to a biobank, how is that human sample processed? Who is the owner of the sample? Who should decide how it should be used? Who has the right to know individual results of research? These and many more ethical dilemmas exist in the ethical framework of biobanks. With the recent rapid developments in biobanking, all of these issues are magnified with plenty of further new questions continuously arising. Ethical framework has been the most controversial issue in the domain of biobanking. Thus, it is not surprising that there is a substantial literature focusing on ethical dilemmas in biobanking, such as informed consent, privacy, protection, and returning of results to participants. For many years, researchers at CRB have provided constructive advice on how to deal with ethical aspects of research using human tissue material and personal data. For more than 80 years tissue has been derived from human bodies, stored, distributed and used for therapeutic, educational, forensic and research purposes as part of healthcare routine in most western countries.

American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Houston, USA, Association of Bioethics World Congress Edinburgh, UK, Oxford Global Health and Bioethics International Conference Oxford shire, UK, CFP: Global Forum on Bioethics in Research Foundation Merieux, France, Hands On Biobanks 2016 conference Vienna, Austria, Global Biobanking London, UK, The Biomarker Conference Orlando, Florida – USA, ART World Congress Symposium on Safe and Efficient IVF New York City, United States, VIII International Postharvest Symposium: Enhancing Supply Chain and Consumer Benefits - Ethical and Technological Issues Cartagena, Murcia, Spain.

According to estimates from the World Bank, global healthcare spending increased at a CAGR of 6.97% from 2003 to 2013, from USD 3,786 Billion in 2003 to USD 7,427 Billion in 2013. In this period, public healthcare spending increased at a CAGR of 7.28%, from USD 2,198 Billion in 2003 to USD 4,440 Billion in 2013. This high growth rate, along with the substantial size of healthcare spending, will act as an important driver for biobanks, hospitals and gene banks, which are the major end-user segments of the biopreservation media & equipment market.