You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
A study of public opinion on the use of tissue samples from living subjects for clinical research
  1. M L Goodson,
  2. B G Vernon
  1. School of Population and Health Sciences, The Medical School, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
 Ms M L Goodson
 School of Population and Health Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK; M.L.Goodsonncl.ac.uk

Abstract

Aims: To assess public opinion on the use of tissue samples from living adults and children for clinical research.

Methods: A questionnaire study of 100 healthy volunteers (100% response rate) from a Newcastle NHS dental practice. The issues investigated were the types of tissues that individuals were prepared to donate for research, the type of research donors would be prepared to consent to, and attitudes to research on children’s tissues.

Results: Eighteen per cent of the participants said that they would not give consent for research to be carried out on their tissues, 50% would not give consent for the donation of a child’s tissues. Only 26% of subjects said that they would give consent for research on genetic cloning compared with 82% for cancer research. Sex differences existed in the responses.

Conclusions: Greater research attention needs to be given to public opinion on the use of tissue from living subjects for medical research to facilitate drafting of new legislation.

  • living subjects
  • tissue
  • clinical research
  • public opinion

https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp.2003.9886

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes