Lori B. Andrews

We have a thriving biotechnology industry in the United States. There are over 1,450 biotechnology companies developing diagnostic and treatment technologies in medicine, creating more nutritional foods, and innovating new industrial processes. Yet this $28.5 billion sector of the economy is not without controversy. The “bio” in biotechnology comes from living, biological entities – people, plants, animals, and even bacteria. In the realm of biobanking, people are the source of the raw material for the discovery of genes for research, diagnosis, and therapy, raising a host of issues about rights and responsibilities, fiduciary duties and societal obligations.
When I was growing up, it was said that the chemicals in the body were worth 89 cents. Today, though, like a bullish stock market, the price tags on body parts have soared. The value of a human egg can be tens of thousands of dollars. A single cadaver can be mined for medical and research uses – its skin worth $36,522, its bones $80,000, its tendons $21,400, and so forth. The value of a particularly interesting human gene – or even snippets of human genetic material – can be billions.