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Proposed changes to laws governing the use of human tissue could have a devastating affect on medical research throughout New Zealand.
Parliament's health select committee is considering the Human Tissue Bill, which primarily focuses on the use and donation of organs and body parts.
However its current draft will also have considerable significance for universities and other research centres, Professor Tom Barnes, deputy vice-chancellor (research) at the University of Auckland, said.
"The bill defines human cell lines as body tissue ... in no other jurisdiction is the use of cell lines regulated by ethics committees," Professor Barnes said.
"A consent/ethics requirement for the use of cell lines would result in the paralysis of biomedical research into a wide range of diseases, including all types of cancer, blood diseases, bone diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, liver, kidney and intestinal diseases, to name but a few. Such a requirement would potentially make cell-based research in New Zealand unviable."
Human cells can be maintained indefinitely in cultures, and many commonly used cells had been in existence for decades, meaning details of their original donors were not available, Professor Barnes said.
Cell lines could be replicated easily and were an endlessly renewable resource. If an application to an ethics organisation was needed before the cells could be used, the University of Auckland could need to make as many as 1000 applications to cover its current research programmes, he said.
The sensitivities around using human tissue were acknowledged by the university, Professor Barnes said. Its written submission noted many Maori had strong views on the right of a whanau or hapu to speak for a dead person, and also included a submission from university council member Peter Menzies setting out his concerns that fetal tissue needed to be covered by the same consent rules as other human tissue.
Mr Menzies has recommended New Zealand use the same consent framework as Australia.
Earlier this month, Mr Menzies' lawyer, Hanne Janes, told the committee that under the draft bill, fetuses from abortions could be used for research without consent, and added that the practice could be happening now.
Professor Barnes said he was not aware of any jurisdiction where fetal tissue could be given without consent.
"Certainly we would not be using fetal tissue which was given without consent."
The University of Auckland was very strict in the way it gave approval for researchers who worked in "those difficult areas", and it worked within the letter of the law, Professor Barnes said.
