Consent to using human tissue

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7418.759

BMJ 2003;327:759-760 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7418.759

Editorial

Consent to using human tissue

Implied consent should suffice

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Human tissue is vital for teaching, laboratory quality control,and research—work done for the good of all. Consent isrequired to legitimise such use. But how should consent be sought?

Dramatic recent publicity about inadequate consent proceduresfor autopsy has engendered new regulations that have been appliedto all human samples—surgical resections, biopsies, blood,urine, even sputum.¹ As an example of the consequences an internationalstudy of a rare form of kidney disease has recently been abandonedbecause the requirement for central review of microscope slides—whichcontain micrograms of human tissue—was deemed to requireexplicit consent from patients in the United States and theUnited Kingdom. The situation in other European countries isvaried, but none has regulations as restrictive as the UnitedKingdom.

Is the United Kingdom leading the way or overreacting? Autopsyspecimens have great emotional importance, but patients rarelyregard tissue that has been removed for therapeutic . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter Furness, professor of renal pathology

Department of Pathology, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW (pnf1@le.ac.uk)

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Anonymise all samples: Trevor G. Kerr
bmj.com, 3 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Bar Codes and Implied Consent: Simon Knowles
bmj.com, 3 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Blight on the use of human tissue in medical education and research: Timothy R Helliwell
bmj.com, 4 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Response form the author: Peter N Furness
bmj.com, 5 Oct 2003 [Full text]
EQA under threat too?: John Nottingham
bmj.com, 6 Oct 2003 [Full text]
taxation and tissue: Simon Knowles
bmj.com, 6 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Code Proper Secondary Use of Human Tissue in the Netherlands: Peter H.J. Riegman
bmj.com, 8 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Re: Anonymise all samples: Adam F Padel
bmj.com, 8 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Who will be the loser?: Peter J Waugh
bmj.com, 9 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Use of Surplus Human Tissue For Research: Michael J Shackcloth, et al.
bmj.com, 11 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Patient consent to the use of human tissue taken from NHS patients, and stored for research purposes: Nicholas J Wald, et al.
bmj.com, 14 Oct 2003 [Full text]
Universal consent form: Ian M Frayling
bmj.com, 15 Apr 2004 [Full text]
Implied consent or objection: Gargi Sanyal
bmj.com, 9 May 2005 [Full text]