DNA databanks and consent: a suggested policy option involving an authorization model.

"Competing interests None declared."

"AcknowledgementsDr Upshur is supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a Research Scholar Award from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University Of Toronto. Dr Daar is support by grants from the Program in Applied Ethics and Biotechnology (supported by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Co., Sun Life Financial, the University of Toronto, the Hospital for Sick Children, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre and the University Health Network) and the Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health (supported by Genome Canada).The authors are very grateful to Shari Gruman for her expert assistance in the preparation of the manuscript."