Property: Who Owns Your Body?

Question 1

Who owns your body when you are alive and when you are dead?

Answer 1

• implied that we own our own bodies when we are alive but some legislation contradicts it slightly
• law suggests we have a “weaker package of limited property rights”
• we can also transfer property to someone else (such as donating an organ) but no strong property right meaning we cannot sell it
• when we are dead there is no property to own

Question 2

Describe the John Moore case

Answer 2

• John Moore had been diagnosed with leukaemia and had his spleen removed
• he returned to care several times for blood and tissue samples to be taken
• his Dr patented a cell line derived from his T cells and products
• used them and collabed with a pharma company to made $15 million+
• Moore found out and took the Dr to court saying he had a continuing property interest in his cells and that he did not give informed consent and that the Dr had breached fiduciary duty

Question 3

Describe the Hagahai and T cell case and the ethical issues raised

Answer 3

• researchers travel to Papua New Guinea
• found that some members of the Hagahai people had blood samples that contained unique characteristics that could offer some resistance to certain types of leukaemia
• applied for a patent
• gained international interest
• application for patent revoked because if granted meant the US owned a DNA sample of a non-US citizen
• moral implications surrounding individual ownership and identity, and level of ownership if nations could transfer that across boundaries

Question 4

Why was there controversy surrounding the Canavan gene patent?

Answer 4

• the Greenberg family had donated samples to research
• a screening was subsequently formulated from it and money made each time the screening was carried out
• the family argued that they also share in the commercial interest
• court ruled that because they fully consented to the research itself, they had conferred ownership
• also if the commercial relationship had not been clarified by the companies, legally families cannot dispute any commercial benefit that may subsequently come of it

Question 5

Describe the importance of informed consent and the difference it would have made to these ethical cases

Answer 5

• informed consent is what makes the research morally ethical (without it makes any research morally compromised)

Question 6

What is the legislation surrounding human tissue in Scotland?

Answer 6

• Tissue Act 2006: requires authorisation for use of organs, tissues and samples from the deceased
• does not regulate the use of tissues from the living

Question 7

What is the current and proposed legislation regarding organ donation in Wales, Scotland and England?

Answer 7

• moving away from an opt-in system
• Wales: opt out system from 2015
• England: opt out from 2020
• Scotland: opt out from 2020

Question 8

Describe what happened in the Alder Hey organ scandal and the resulting legislation

Answer 8

• a pathologist kept organs of children who had undergone post mortem
• Redfern Inquiry which revealed that the practice of removing and retaining organs after post mortem examination was widespread in hospitals around the country and longstanding
• the predominate purpose being for medical education and research
• had been done in a paternalistic way (in belief relatives would not want to know about it) and in some cases no consent had been obtained at all, in others forms had been signed but without full understanding of it (some consenting to post mortem but not retention of organs)
• raises issue of biopiracy: need for prior informed consent and discussion of benefit-sharing

Question 9

What was the court’s outcome on the John Moore case?

Answer 9

• no property interest as the removed spleen was not Mr Moore’s property
• Dr Golde did breach fiduciary duty and was not acting in the patient’s benefit and should have ensured informed consent
• financial gain was a conflict of interest