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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.  CAN WE HAVE YOUR BLOOD? -- THE VA

RACES TOWARD LARGELY UNCHARTED ETHICAL TERRITORY

Story here... http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1146257711215380.xml&coll=7

Story below:

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Thank you for your service. Can we have your blood?

The Department of Veterans Affairs races toward largely uncharted ethical territory

Monday, May 01, 2006

It's not surprising that the Department of Veterans Affairs is proceeding with plans to create a DNA databank using specimens collected from veterans. The agency wants to start collecting and banking DNA samples from volunteers as soon as it can.

Neither is it surprising that many veterans are skeptical about trusting the agency with their DNA samples.

The effort, like so many ventures on the seam of science, politics and government, is full of promise and peril. And because this proposed venture raises so many ethical questions, it requires particularly careful handling. It's not clear yet that it's getting it.

The agency has said it hopes to begin collecting DNA samples from willing volunteers as soon as the next fiscal year, which starts in October. But it formed an ethics advisory committee -- seven people with advanced degrees, one Army dentist and one member of the Disabled American Veterans -- only last month.

The committee has a lot to discuss in just a few months. Little questions such as:

If genetic research detects a hidden, undesirable trait, such as a predilection for alcoholism, can that information be shared with third parties? Should it be disclosed to the donor?

When future researchers study a tissue or blood sample, should they be able to trace it back to its donor?

If the agency sells a set of samples to a pharmaceutical company, which uses them to create a new drug, should donors be compensated?

Will donors really give informed consent to the use of their samples, since so much about the future research is unknown?

Can the Department of Veterans Affairs really guarantee privacy of the donors and security of the DNA specimens?

Many veterans have developed a healthy skepticism about the government that sent them to war. Those who have bumped into bureaucratic frustrations with the Department of Veterans Affairs -- and their names are legion -- are unlikely to believe that the same agency can effectively manage such a sensitive matter as DNA research.

On the other hand, it makes a certain amount of sense for the agency, which has millions of clients and a vast repository of electronic medical records, to look for ways to participate in important genomic research.

But a DNA repository of the blood and tissue of military veterans isn't something to be constructed hastily. The questions surrounding the matter are profoundly important, and the answers are by no means clear.

The agency should slow down. It should conduct its ethical discussions in public, with veterans at the table. Only then should the collection and banking of DNA specimens begin.

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Larry Scott

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

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