Sustainable biobanks: a case study for a green global bioethics
Sustainable biobanks: a case study for a green global bioethics
This paper argues that as we move to redefine global bioethics, there is a need to be attentive to the ethical issues associated with the environmental sustainability of data and digital infrastructures in global health systems. We show that these infrastructures have thus far featured little in environmental impact discussions in the context of health, and we use a case study approach of biobanking to illustrate this. We argue that this missing discussion is problematic because biobanks have environmental impacts associated with data and digital infrastructures. We consider several ethical questions to consider these impacts: what ethical work does the concept of environmental sustainability add to the debate; how should this concept be prioritised in decision-making; and who should be responsible for doing so? We call on global bioethics to play a role in advancing this dialogue and addressing these questions.
Digital sustainability, biobanking, bioethics, environmental, sustainability
50-64
Samuel, G.
66af6213-08de-4c0e-92c1-12083ec456e3
Lucivero, F
e71d91ba-e277-435a-bcd3-1d01defa4acb
Lucassen, A M
2eb85efc-c6e8-4c3f-b963-0290f6c038a5
24 February 2022
Samuel, G.
66af6213-08de-4c0e-92c1-12083ec456e3
Lucivero, F
e71d91ba-e277-435a-bcd3-1d01defa4acb
Lucassen, A M
2eb85efc-c6e8-4c3f-b963-0290f6c038a5
Samuel, G., Lucivero, F and Lucassen, A M
(2022)
Sustainable biobanks: a case study for a green global bioethics.
Global bioethics = Problemi di bioetica, 33 (1), .
(doi:10.1080/11287462.2021.1997428).
Abstract
This paper argues that as we move to redefine global bioethics, there is a need to be attentive to the ethical issues associated with the environmental sustainability of data and digital infrastructures in global health systems. We show that these infrastructures have thus far featured little in environmental impact discussions in the context of health, and we use a case study approach of biobanking to illustrate this. We argue that this missing discussion is problematic because biobanks have environmental impacts associated with data and digital infrastructures. We consider several ethical questions to consider these impacts: what ethical work does the concept of environmental sustainability add to the debate; how should this concept be prioritised in decision-making; and who should be responsible for doing so? We call on global bioethics to play a role in advancing this dialogue and addressing these questions.
Text
11287462.2021
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 21 October 2021
Published date: 24 February 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Wellcome Centre Oxford University (grant number: 203132/Z/16/Z). AL is chair of UK Biobank Ethics Advisory Committee, and in receipt of award which employs GS as a Senior Research Fellow to UK Biobank Ethics Advisory Committee (grant number: 205339/A/16/Z). GS also holds her own Wellcome Fellowship that explores the environmental impacts of digital health technologies (grant number: 222180/Z/20/Z).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
Digital sustainability, biobanking, bioethics, environmental, sustainability
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 458158
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/458158
ISSN: 1128-7462
PURE UUID: e89247a6-6a57-4f1a-91fa-0324130e9518
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Date deposited: 29 Jun 2022 17:27
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:54
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Author:
F Lucivero
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