Biobanking is a process where human biological materials are stored and collected for scientific research.

Professor Michael Burgess

The University of British Columbia’s Professor Michael Burgess and Professor Kieran O’Doherty presented topics on biobanking and public engagement at the Challenges for Society in the Genetic Information Age seminar.

Prof Burgess and Prof O’Doherty explored their current work into the role of deliberative democracy “as a means to enhance policy approaches to ethical and social issues related to biobanks”.
 
Prof Burgess says deliberative democracy is a shift in focus from decision making resulting in simple votes, to “a communicative process of opinion and will-formation”.

The seminar discussed the many ethical concerns coming to light since the growth of biobanking.

A paper by Professors Burgess, O’Doherty and David Secko, Biobanking in British Columbia: discussions of the future of personalised medicine through deliberative public engagement, listed several concerns raised by the public regarding ethical issues in biobanking

The paper revealed there is a strong consensus among the public in British Columbia that biobanks should feature standardised privacy and be run independently of both researchers and funding bodies.

There was also discussion regarding what kind of research a subject’s tissue should be used for.

The West Australian Department of Health (DoH) is working with the visiting professors to look at the future of biobanks and the potential complexities of ethical legislations.

DoH Office of Population Health Genomics (OPHG) social research manager Caron Molster says that “within the field of population health genomics, biobanking is the focus of much current policy work”.

“The OPHG is developing a governance framework for biobanking in WA.

“This covers a range of bio-ethical issues including benefit-sharing, privacy protection and genetic discrimination.

“Often with bio-ethical issues there are multiple perspectives, no clear ‘right or wrong’ solution and low levels of community awareness of the alternative views and trade-offs that are required between competing values and interests.

“The OPHG has recently implemented and evaluated a deliberative public engagement approach for bio-ethical policy development.”

The Challenges for Society in the Genetic Information Age seminar was presented by the OPHG and also featured Indiana University’s Professor Eric Meslin, former advisor to the Clinton administration on genetic issues.

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