Biomedical Research with Human Body “Parts”

Abstract

For several decades, the morality of medical research with human subjects has been one of the main areas of activity and reflection in philosophy of medicine and bioethics. It is argued that precisely the issues and problems of medical experimentation have led to the emergence of modern bioethics [18]. The body of literature that has developed since then focuses exclusively on experimentation with human subjects ‘as a whole’, that is, persons and their (entire) bodies [15,19]. Much less attention has been given to biomedical research (medical experimentation) with human body parts. For example, the Declaration of Helsinki contains no ethical guidelines concerning the collection, storage, and use of human body parts. However, in present-day medicine, human tissues and body fluids are increasingly used for research purposes. The availability of human body parts is of undeniable importance for basic research, for research aimed at improving therapies or developing new treatments. The ethical aspects of procurement, donation, and allocation of human body parts have been discussed in the context of blood transfusion and transplantation medicine, but the scope for using human body parts in the treatment of other patients is rapidly expanding. Human tissues also play an important part in quality control in the health care system Finally, they are sources for the manufacture of diagnostic and therapeutic aids. These various uses of human body parts are connected with various practices of biomedical research. In some cases, body parts are directly obtained for research purposes, but in other cases human tissues, organs, and body fluids are used for purposes other than those for which they were originally obtained. These practices raise questions concerning the ethical and legal issues involved [12], but also lead to an exploration of the nature and value of human bodies and body parts. In this chapter, we shall focus on some of the ethical problems related to biomedical research with human body parts.KeywordsBody PartBiomedical ResearchEthical ProblemBody MaterialUniparental DisomiaThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.