Ethical Challenges for Biobanks: Two Sides of the Coin

The many ethical challenges in biobanking include management of biobanks with quality issues and benefit sharing, consent issues related to autonomy of the donors, data storage, and privacy as well as the sources and use of samples and data. Thus, one side of the coin is the many potential health benefits, such as biomarkers for clinical purposes, which makes the development of biobanks containing human samples with linkable health data ethically justifiable. The other side of the coin is the ethical costs in the form of potential loss of autonomy depending on the consent practice, unknown or even unlawful use of tissues, and their future use in ways unacceptable to people. People, in general, are interested in genetic data and willing to donate samples and data to scientific research. It is important to cherish research integrity and listen to people’s opinions to retain trust. In addition to public discussion, education of both scientists and lay people, and advanced legislation are important for the ethically good long-term development for the biobanking field.