The tissue biobanking of specific biological residual materials, which constitutes a useful resource for medical/scientific research, has raised some ethical issues, such as the need to define which kind of consent is applicable for biological residual materials biobanks.
In 2001 the Italian Government defined Essential Assistance Levels (LEA), which can be considered as an important step forward in the health care system. The Italian health care system would provide payment of essential and uniform aid services in order to safeguard many values such as human dignity, personal health, equal assistance and good health practices. The Ministry of Health has worked to rationalize the National Formulary and to define evaluation methods for drugs in order to choose what to reimburse (...) without penalizing the rights of the individual and society. (shrink)
