Tirumalai Kamala has an excellent answer at Quora. I’ll add this:
- Nobody should be forced to give tissue samples, of course. But note that patients who have tissue removed as part of their care are receiving a benefit – their health is improved as a result. Or at least they have a reasonable expectation of benefit. Thus, they are not uncompensated.
- Once the tissue has been removed, it doesn’t magically become valuable. That value is created by the work, knowledge and skills of others. They recognize the potential value of the tissue, and they invest time and resources required to realize that value. They also bear the risk that their efforts will bear no fruit – which is the actual outcome in the vast majority of cases. The donor, by contrast, adds no value and takes no risk.
- Donors seeking to profit from their tissues are thus engaging in rent-seeking behavior – hoping to profit from the efforts of others without creating any new wealth themselves.
- This situation can be usefully contrasted with pharma companies seeking to discover new drugs based on traditional medicines or ethnobotany. In these cases, a group of people has spent time and effort to develop useful knowledge about the medical properties of natural compounds. They absolutely deserve to be compensated for their knowledge.
So, no. Passively contributing a lump of tissue to a development effort in which you share no risk and contribute nothing else of value does not entitle you to any benefits or profits.