Legal implications to using your own blood or family members? - (Jul/14/2006 )

Does anyone know if it's ok to use say, a brother or sisters donated blood for an assay?

depends on the laws where you are

it's illegal here unless you've gone through IRB and Human Subjects, etc...gotten approval...and then gotten informed consent, like anything else

for example, it is illegal for me to use my own blood for an assay without the appropriate paperwork. there is too much liability for my institution

yip same goes for the UK any test where human material is to be sued, need to follow the spcific guidlines of your institution. ie getting consent, ethical practice etc etc

In some countries, it's not allowed to use your own blood or cells, or the one from your relatives or your collegues, for some security purpose. You might transform some cells with some chemistry, rendering them tumoral. And, as it's your own cell, your immune system won't eliminate them if unfortunately you inject them to yourself (cut with contaminanted blade, broken glass...)

also i think using relatives and colleugues biological material is not ethically acceptable in a lot of countries, as it can be construed as though the researcher forced/aided the donor into giving the material.

this was the case recently in korea, where woman lab associates donated their eggs to be used in cloning experiments, with in their own lab. this produces ethincal problems as you cant see whether these people gave biological material out of their own free will or where pressuered into doing so.

there should be preparation procedures for human sample
and safety procedures and hygiene sterility clean rules that you can't do by your own.
Moreover, how would you reproduce your results if you know it's your brother/sister? ask for more?... not that's not possible
Last is that in many countries, donation should be nameless and can't be funded.