Clause 1 - Authorisation of activities for scheduled purposes
Human Tissue Bill
10:15 am
Ms Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
We will return to that matter. The obvious difference is what can be used in terms of clinical audit for living patients and from the deceased. There is an issue about the need for consent where someone is deceased. If the material had been taken before they died, it would be possible for it to be used; if it were taken from a deceased person, there would be restrictions on its use.
The hon. Gentlemen may be trying to tease out an assurance that issues of the use of tissue and organs for research and transplantation will be addressed on every possible occasion so that the opportunities for donation are maximised. That is a laudable aim, but this is not the way to achieve it. The consequence of that approach would be that both patients and bereaved relatives were obliged to specify all manner of detail that they might not wish to consider. Doctors would have to ask whether they thought that appropriate. Those approaching bereaved relatives have to be aware of the difficulties that people face in some of those circumstances.
One of the main purposes of the Bill and of the consent provisions is to ensure a proper and positive engagement between medicine, science, patients and the public. We want to ensure that the use of tissue is based squarely on consent. We know that patients, as I have said, overwhelmingly will consent to the use of tissue for research. That is why it is right that they should be asked; current GMC guidelines state that we must not place obligations on patients. We must work with the trust and confidence that we build. It is by means of good practice, not statute, that we should consider when and how we seek such consent.
The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire asked about generic consent; for example, if blood were taken and an individual stated that they were happy for research to be carried out, that sample could be kept for a length of time. We must distinguish between research that will lead, in general terms, to a particular scientific development and research that will affect an individual. For example, research might lead to the discovery that an individual has a particular disorder that might occur later in life. The use of samples for those purposes is a different scenario. That must be considered in the context of medical ethics committees, which look closely at what research is undertaken and how research material should be collected.