Every major advance in modern medicine rests on acts of public trust, which in many cases, is the decision to donate human tissue for research.

From cancer immunotherapies to regenerative medicine, Australia’s health and medical research system depends on ethical, well-governed frameworks that honour that trust and keep pace with scientific progress.

The integrity and sustainability of this kind of transformative research relies on upholding high ethical and governance standards, especially in the ways that tissue is collected, stored and used with the informed consent of donors. The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) has submitted two responses to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Review of Human Tissue Laws and the associated discussion paper, focusing on the use of human tissue for research purposes:

• July 2025 – Considerations regarding research uses of human tissue
• February 2026 – Response to Discussion Paper 90

Read more on the Academy’s submission here.