Human Tissue: Ethical Issues
Introduction
13.1 Advances in medical treatment, scientific research and biotechnology are using human tissue in an ever increasing variety of ways. These uses include the increasing success of, and consequent demand for, organ and tissue transplantation, the use of human tissue for research on new medicines and the use of human cell lines and genetic material for studying fundamental biological processes.
13.2 Society demands general respect for the human body and its parts: human tissue should not be used at will or abused. Increasing public concern has been expressed over a number of ethical issues raised by the uses of human tissue as they have developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Practices that have been questioned include the sale of organs, the patenting of life-forms and the commercial exploitation of products derived from the tissue of patients or research subjects. A particular set of questions was opened up by a case which has been the subject of much legal argument in the USA: the attempt by John Moore to claim an interest in products developed from his tissue. The circumstances of that case were exceptional, but it has prompted important questions about UK law and procedures bearing on the use of human tissue.
13.3 While expressing anxiety about certain issues, the public has also welcomed advances in medicine and biotechnology involving the use of human tissue in clinical therapy. Examples of this can be seen in the public's response to appeals for funds to send children abroad for advanced transplant surgery, and in the interest in genetic research into diseases such as cystic fibrosis and the associated potential for new treatments. In this report we have attempted to balance the potential benefits for diagnosis and treatment that may stem from medical and scientific advances with the need both to safeguard those from whom tissue is removed and to ensure that the use made of human tissue is acceptable.
13.4 There is an important and urgent need to consider, clarify and, where necessary, strengthen the ethical and legal framework within which the clinical and research uses of human tissue take place. The ethical issues relate directly to the core of respect for human beings, namely that they and their bodies should not be injured and that nothing should be done to them and their bodies without their consent. The legal status of human tissue is unclear. The limitations of the existing framework of legal and professional regulation point to the conclusion that a coherent approach is needed to any further regulation. That approach will not necessarily require legislation; given the pace of change in biomedical research, a more rapid and flexible approach to regulation may be preferable. But the need to clarify the law is important insofar as its uncertainty may impede legitimate treatment, teaching, study or research or even, at worst, may encourage illegitimate uses of human tissue.