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The Return of Results of Deceased Research Participants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Anne Marie Tassé
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Extract

Until the mid-20th century, biomedical research centered on the study of specific diseases, concerned with short periods of time and small groups of living research participants. However, the growth of longitudinal population studies and long-term biobanking now forces the research community to examine the possibility of the death of their research participants.

The death of a research participant raises numerous ethical and legal issues, including the return of deceased individuals’ research results to related family members. As with the return of individual research results for living research participants, the question of the obligation to return a deceased person’s research results to family members has yet to be settled. This question is particularly acute in the context of genetic research since the research results from one individual may have health implications for all biological relatives.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 2011 , pp. 621 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2011

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