[Secondary use of human tissue: consent and better information required]. / Nader gebruik van lichaamsmateriaal: zeggenschap en betere informatie nodig.

Human tissue remaining after diagnostic procedures is important for use in scientific research. This 'secondary use' of tissue is regulated by the Dutch Medical Treatment Contracts Act and the Code of Conduct for Proper Secondary Use of Human Tissue of the Dutch Federation of Biomedical Scientific Societies. Patients have the right to opt-out of further use of their residual tissue, but the procedures for objection and the provision of information involved are not regulated by statute. Dutch patients have a positive attitude to further use of human tissue for other purposes. They prefer, however, a procedure in which they are informed verbally by their health professional about research with residual tissue. The information can be brief and is best provided early in the treatment. Administrative and technical modifications of the current registration systems are necessary to support the opting-out procedure in practice. By taking the preferences of patients into account, trust in medical practice can be maintained.

Purity and the dangers of regenerative medicine: regulatory innovation of human tissue-engineered technology.

This paper examines the development of innovation in human tissue technologies as a form of regenerative medicine, firstly by applying 'pollution ideas' to contemporary trends in its risk regulation and to the processes of regulatory policy formation, and secondly by analysing the classificatory processes deployed in regulatory policy. The analysis draws upon data from fieldwork and documentary materials with a focus on the UK and EU (2002-05) and explores four arenas: governance and regulatory policy; commercialisation and the market; 'evidentiality' manifest in evidence-based policy; and publics' and technology users' values and ethics. The analysis suggests that there is a trend toward 'purification' across these arenas, both material and socio-political. A common process of partitioning is found in stakeholders' attempts to define a clear terrain, which the field of tissue-engineered technology might occupy. We conclude that pollution ideas and partitioning processes are useful in understanding regulatory ordering and innovation in the emerging technological zone of human tissue engineering.