Genomic Research with Organs and Tissues Originating from Transplant Donors: Ethical Considerations for the GTEx Project.

The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to study human gene expression and regulation in multiple tissues from individual post-mortem biospecimen donors. This case report involves GTEx donors who were discovered after biospecimen collection to have been the recipients of solid organ or tissue transplants for therapeutic purposes. This scenario prompted us to consider whether authorization from the GTEx research donor’s next of kin was legally and ethically acceptable to allow genomic research on tissue originally derived from a therapeutic organ donor. The outcome of the case was to withdraw the tissue from both the GTEx study and future research use. Given the complexity of the system governing organ and tissue donation in the U.S., more research is warranted to address some of the legal and ethical issues raised by this and related cases.