Although the Moore court argued that paying patients for their tissues would impede medical progress, we believe that measures are required to ensure that patients not bear all of the altruistic burden of promoting medical research. At present, virtually all of the financial reward goes to those who modify the cell lines and use them in ways that give them scientific value. The knowledge, techniques, and processes involved in cell line development and modification, however, rest upon a large foundation of work developed by the scientific community, much of it publicly funded. It is unfair that the individuals who contribute only the last link in this long chain of scientific development should be the only ones to reap the financial rewards. Without denying their right to be compensated, more needs to be done to assure that the benefits of the research are more widely shared.
