Selling Ethics

Barnes et al. (Citation2025) emphasize the need for current biobanking consent models to more deeply engage participants who want to determine how their data are used. We appreciate their desire to provide participants with real-time updates on the status of their data and make the process more accessible. We additionally agree with the goal of making biobanking data more private and secure. However, despite agreeing with the authors on these broader aims, we identify deep moral difficulties with their article on two levels. On one level, we worry that the authors have not engaged deeply enough with some of the constituent parts of their proposal. On a different level, rather than critically examining the use of novel technological methods for managing biobanking data, the article instead reads as an effort by the authors to “sell” the underlying technology under the guise of an ethics paper.