LatinBanks - Study on the legal and social implications of creating banks of biological material for biomedical research

LatinBanks is a two year research project supported by the European Commission and the partners involved. LatinBanks is the first milestone in MEDNET, which is a cooperation tool between European and Latin American experts in the field of Biomedicine, Biotechnology, Law and Ethics. MEDNET is the first network with this thematic and geographical scope. The general objective of LatinBanks was to study the legal, ethical and social issues raised by the use of biological samples in biomedical research and biobanks.
Toward this goal, the working group started by researching the current situation in each country, the final result of which is this monograph containing a series of reports and other useful information, from a comparative perspective. Specifically this monograph includes national reports, a list of national biobanks, references to legislation and bibliography, links to national institutions, a guide for drafting a standard consent form, a list of frequently asked questions answered regarding each country involved and finally, the UNESCO International Declaration on Human Genetic Data.