RESEARCH ARTICLE m A

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Biological sample availability creates important opportu-nities for researchers to advance medical science and contribute to collective good [1,2]. However several eth-ical, legal and social issues co-exist [3]. Research Ethics Committees (RECs) globally have a mandate to protect research participant interests such as confidentiality, ownership, export, storage and secondary use of sam-ples (individual good) with specific consent, regulations and policies but implementation of these policies differs from one REC to another [4]. Researchers (unable to pre-dict future use of samples due to scientific advances) pre-fer a broad general form of consent to advance scientific research and promote the collective good [1,5-9]. This divergence of perspectives creates tension between REC