title: Blood rights: the body and information privacy.
abstract: Genetic and other medical technology makes blood, human tissue and other bodily samples an immediate and accessible source of comprehensive personal and health information about individuals. Yet, unlike medical records, bodily samples are not subject to effective privacy protection or other regulation to ensure that individuals have rights to control the collection, use and transfer of such samples. This article examines the existing coverage of privacy legislation, arguments in favour of baseline protection for bodily samples as sources of information and possible approaches to new regulation protecting individual privacy rights in bodily samples.
authors.affiliation: Australian Law Reform Commission, G.P.O. Box 3708, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alston
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D030541:Databases, Genetic / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D030881:Disclosure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D036281:Genetic Research / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010067:Ownership / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D018907:Privacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000592:standards*