What are biobanks, and how is organ donation consent being changed in Switzerland?

Biobanks are collections of biological material (blood, tissue samples) linked to the donors' personal and clinical data, a cornerstone of personalised medicine. For organ donation, Switzerland is switching to an opt-out rule (Widerspruchsregelung): everyone is a potential donor unless they have objected, expected from around 2027.

Biobanks store samples together with personal and clinical data. That link is what makes them valuable for data-driven, personalised medicine, and what makes them ethically sensitive: the samples outlive the moment of consent, so questions of purpose limitation, re-identification and withdrawal arise (compare contextual integrity).

Organ donation: under the current opt-in model, organs may only be taken if the person (or their relatives) agreed. Under the opt-out model, consent is presumed unless the person registered an objection; relatives keep a say. Swiss voters accepted the switch in 2022, and the new rule is expected to apply from about the third quarter of 2027.

The ethical trade-off of opt-out: more organs for patients on the waiting list (a case of hard rationing) vs. the worry that silence is treated as consent, which strains the idea of informed consent.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Organ donation — opt-in vs. opt-out consent systems by country.
• Wikipedia: Biobank — types of biobank and their ethical issues.