Human Tissue Research

Human Biobanking and Consent

Abstract

　Human bodies become necessary materials for innovation in the era of promoting medicine and life science research. How should we balance the research activities to bring out the generalizable knowledge and social manner to respect the variety of wills of individuals as research participants? In this article, the author focuses on activities using biological samples derived from human bodies (human biological materials) and human biobanks, which are being launched and developed under the national policies as a basis for such research activities and maps the current discussion on the understanding of “consent” in the context of research.