This article examines the privacy of personal medical information in the health research context. Arguing that biomedical research in Canada has been caught up in the government's broader neoliberal policy agenda that has positioned biotechnology as a strategic driver of economic growth, the author discusses the tension between informational privacy and the need for medical information for research purposes. Consideration is given to the debate about whether privacy for medical information serves or hinders the "public good" in respect of medical research and to discussions of informed consent as an element of "fair information practices" designed to safeguard the privacy of personal information, including attempts to subvert requirements for informed consent in the medical research context. (Contains 23 notes.)