[Before President Trump took office], the Obama administration dropped a controversial proposal that would have required all federally funded scientists to get permission from patients before using their cells, blood, tissue or DNA for research.
The proposal was eliminated from the final revision of the Common Rule….
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[S]cientists have argued that the mandate for consent in the initial Obama proposal was unnecessary and would hinder crucial research.
“There was concern…that by implementing this new rule it would be harmful to the research enterprise, because it would make it harder to do research that is very, very useful,” says Dr. Jerry Menikoff, who head[ed] the Health and Human Services Office of Human Research Protections.
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Still, the decision to drop the requirement raised concern among others.
“We know that trust is a critical factor in folks participating in research,” says Debra Mathews, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University. “And we’ve seen in recent years the impact of when that trust is breached. In order for the public to trust the scientific community, the scientific community has to demonstrate that it’s trustworthy. And a big part of that is asking permission.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Scientists Needn’t Get A Patient’s Consent To Study Blood Or DNA