Attitudes towards Transfers of Human Research Samples across Borders

Chapter 2 analyzes how sharing of tissue samples for research and disease surveillance purposes has become urgently important While it is clear that this is an area of intense, international controversy, there is an absence of data about what researchers themselves and those involved in the transfer of samples think about these issues, particularly in developing countries This chapter presents results from a survey that was carried out in China, Egypt, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea to explore what researchers and others involved in research, storage and transfer of human tissue samples thought about some of the issues related to sharing of such samples The results demonstrated broad agreement with the positions taken by developing countries in the current debate, favoring restrictions on the use of samples by researchers in developed countries