Abstract
Current policy approaches to social and ethical issues surrounding biobanks manifest lack of public information given by researchers and government, despite the evidence that Italian citizens are well informed about technical and other public perspectives of biotechnologies. For this reason, the focus of our survey was to interview our University’s students on these aspects. The sample consisted of Padua University students (N = 959), who were administered a questionnaire comprising eight questions covering their knowledge about biobanks, their perception of the related benefits and risks, their willingness to donate samples to a biobank for research purposes, their attitude to having their own DNA profile included in a forensic DNA database, and the reasons behind their answers. The vast majority of the students invited to take part in the survey completed the questionnaire, and the number of participants sufficed to be considered representative of the target population. Despite the respondents’ unfamiliarity with the topics explored, suggested by the huge group of respondents answering “I don’t know” to the questions regarding Itaian regulation and reality, their answers demonstrate a general agreement to participate in a biobanking scheme for research purposes, as expressed by the 91% of respondents who were reportedly willing to donate their samples. As for the idea of a forensic DNA database, 35% of respondents said they would agree to having their profile included in such a database, even if they were not fully aware of the benefits and risks of such action.This study shows that Italian people with a higher education take a generally positive attitude to the idea of donating biological samples. It contributes to empirical evidence of what Italy’s citizens understand about biobanking, and of their willingness to donate samples for research purposes, and also to have their genetic profiles included in a national forensic DNA database. Our findings may have clear implications for the policy discussion on biobanks in Italy, in particular it is important to take into account the Italian population’s poor consciousness of forensic DNA database, in order to ensure a better interaction between policy makers and citizens and to make them more aware of the need to balance the individual’s rights and the security of society.
Highlights
Biobanks are storage facilities used to assemble, preserve, and manage collections of biological samples
Our questionnaire was administered to a particular sample of well-educated young Italian adults, which cannot represent the Italian population at large, our findings suggest a generally positive attitude to the idea of donating biological samples to a biobank for research purposes, confirming a previous report from Porteri et al (2014) in a survey conducted in a smaller, different sample population
Conclusion our questionnaire was administered to a sample scarcely representative of the Italian population at large, our findings shed some light on the general attitude of young, well-educated Italian people to the donation of biological samples for use in medical research and forensics
Summary
Biobanks are storage facilities used to assemble, preserve, and manage collections of biological samples. Advances in DNA technology, and the discovery of DNA polymorphisms have facilitated the creation of databases of individuals’ DNA for use in investigating crime. This has opened up a considerable range of opportunities for criminal investigations: comparing the DNA profiles of biological evidence found at the scene of a crime with those in the database can lead to the identification of the likely perpetrator of the crime. Many national DNA databases are large, they don’t contain DNA of all citizens This means that even if DNA is retraived from a crime scene, unless the perpetrator’s DNA is already in the database, it won’t necessarily generate a match. As explained by Machado and Prainsack (2012), the issue of forensic DNA database expansion is far from being “black-and-white”, because the situation is more complex than that: some of those supporting the expansion of DNA databases, or the contexts in which DNA data should be used in this context, are driven by the same values and concerns as some of those who oppose database expansion: justice, privacy an the prevention and the correction of miscarriage of justice
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