By Nicholas Murphy, Charles Weijer, Marat Slessarev, Teneille Gofton Suppose you need to answer an important scientific question, but the only way to do so is through a research study enrolling critically ill patients who have only hours or minutes left to live. What do you do? Is such a study feasible? It is even […]
Category: Research Ethics
Is neoliberalism bad for our health?
By Kate Lyle, Susie Weller, Gabby Samuel, Anneke Lucassen Neoliberalism promotes the rights and responsibilities of individuals to make their own choices and manage their own risks, and as a political approach dominates Western societies. As such, neoliberalism has driven a preoccupation with quantifying and managing risks within society; the idea being that clarifying the […]
We need to eliminate ethics-washing
By Paola Buedo and Marcin Waligora. All of us have heard about ethics scandals in science: big conflict of interests from high level universities, selective reporting in clinical trials, researchers working with potentially dangerous techniques without any regulatory control, retracted scientific articles, and so on. These scandals have an enormous impact on how society perceives […]
Too much or too little? A summary of the forum on financial incentives to participants in health and breastfeeding research
By Rasita Vinay and Annina Bauer. On 13th April 2022, the third webinar for the Forum of Global Health Ethics webinar series took place, focusing on the issue of offering financial incentives to participants in health and breastfeeding research. Offering financial incentives to research participants is a common practice in health research; however, its use […]
How much should you trust research ethicists’ warnings about public distrust?
By Nir Eyal In many places around the world, declining levels of public trust in health officials, medical advice, and medical products are causing damages to personal and public health. For example, distrust is a major contributor to the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in many countries. Understandably, bioethicists seek to heed the potential of […]
When context calls: EFBRI – An Evolving Ethical Framework Informing Breastfeeding Research and Interventions
By Michaela Hefti and Rasita Vinay. Currently, there are no specific ethics guidelines informing biomedical research in breastfeeding and lactation – despite the potentially vulnerable populations involved. On 10 March 2022, EFBRI – An Evolving Ethical Framework Informing Breastfeeding Research and Interventions, was introduced via a LactaWebinar to address this gap and discuss the practical […]
Why we should not extend the 14-day rule
By Bruce P. Blackshaw In 1978, the first baby conceived by IVF was born in the UK, and public concern about how rapidly science was advancing resulted in a government inquiry being set up. It produced the Warnock Report, which recommended (amongst other things) that human embryos could be cultured in vitro for no longer […]
Finding meaning in loss: family experience of research on imminently dying patients in the intensive care unit
By Amanda van Beinum, Nicholas Murphy, Charles Weijer, and Jennifer Chandler “…this study […] it was a way of […] making him live on, in certain ways, or be able to say, ‘hey my dad did this’ you know, we did this, and maybe some good will come out of it…” Intensive care units can […]
Why we agreed to review the first COVID-19 human challenge study
By Simon E. Kolstoe, Tony Lockett and Hugh Davies Reliable information is essential for good decision making. This is particularly true when complex medical situations are combined with political and social ramifications, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last two years have been revealing from the perspective of seeing how societies rely upon, but […]
What’s yours is ours: intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines
By Nancy S. Jecker. The extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic warrant waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently considering such a move, which over 100 Nobel laureates and 75 former heads of state have backed, calling it a “vital and necessary step” that would “expand global manufacturing […]