The role of property rights in human tissue research

Abstract

Traditionally throughout the Western world, the body was held to be governed by the ‘no-property’ principle, however the uses of the human body and its derivatives have changed tremendously in the last few years. This dramatic change has occurred mainly due to the ever-increasing scientific advancements which have led to a great number of positive and beneficial developments. The counterpart to such advances is that the individual source from whom biological material is taken, is progressively being considered as a mine from which researchers and the pharmaceutical industry prospect from. This has led to a destabilisation of the power dynamics between the individual donor, the researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. Such an imbalance in the power dynamics developed into the need for concrete ways with which the individual would be protected. The author of this work feels that the strongest way to do so would be to introduce a limited number of property rights in favour of the individual donor.