Informed consent for genetic research on blood stored for more than a decade: a population based study

Abstract

Education and debate p 648 With recent advances in molecular genetics, there has been a surge in interest in using stored blood samples for genetic research, even though informed consent at the time of blood sampling did not include this possibility. One of the cornerstones of the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki on ethical principles for medical research is the need for informed consent and the right of any participant in a research project to withdraw at any time.1 We report here our experiences of seeking informed consent for academic and commercial genetic research on blood samples collected more than a decade earlier. A total of 1583 out of 2000 (79.2%) randomly selected men and women in the age group 25-64 years participated in the 1990 risk factor survey in the World Health Organization's …