Ethical concerns on sharing genomic data including patients’ family members

Platforms for sharing genomic and phenotype data have been developed to promote genomic research, while maximizing the utility of existing datasets and minimizing the burden on participants. The value of genom...

Authors: Kyoko Takashima, Yuichi Maru, Seiichi Mori, Hiroyuki Mano, Tetsuo Noda and Kaori Muto

Community involvement in biomedical research conducted in the global health context; what can be done to make it really matter?

Community involvement in research has been advocated by researchers, communities, regulatory agencies, and funders with the aim of reinforcing subjects’ protection and improving research efficiency. Community ...

Authors: Federica Fregonese

Deconstructing the notion of “global health research partnerships” across Northern and African contexts

Global health conceives the notion of partnership between North and South as central to the foundations of this academic field. Indeed, global health aspires to an equal positioning of Northern and Southern ac...

Authors: Lara Gautier, Isidore Sieleunou and Albino Kalolo

Right to health and social justice in Bangladesh: ethical dilemmas and obligations of state and non-state actors to ensure health for urban poor

The world is urbanizing rapidly; more than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas, leading to significant transition in lifestyles and social behaviours globally. While offering many advantages, ...

Authors: Sohana Shafique, Dipika S. Bhattacharyya, Iqbal Anwar and Alayne Adams

The ethics of relationality in implementation and evaluation research in global health: reflections from the Dream-A-World program in Kingston, Jamaica

Despite recent developments aimed at creating international guidelines for ethical global health research, critical disconnections remain between how global health research is conducted in the field and the in...

Authors: Nicole A. D’souza, Jaswant Guzder, Frederick Hickling and Danielle Groleau

Ethical issues related to human papillomavirus vaccination programs: an example from Bangladesh

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine was introduced in Bangladesh through the arrangement of a demonstration project in Gazipur district in 2016, targeting grade five female students and non-school going girls ...

Authors: Marium Salwa and Tarek Abdullah Al-Munim

Differences and structural weaknesses of institutional mechanisms for health research ethics: Burkina Faso, Palestine, Peru, and Democratic Republic of the Congo

Regardless of national contexts, the institutions responsible for research ethics, founded on international regulations, are all expected to be structured and to operate in a common way. Our experience with se...

Authors: N’koué Emmanuel Sambiéni

Ethics beyond ethics: the need for virtuous researchers

Research ethics boards (REBs) exist for good reason. By setting rules of ethical behaviour, REBs can help mitigate the risk of researchers causing harm to their research participants. However, the current meth...

Authors: Mark Daku

In pursuit of goodness in bioethics: analysis of an exemplary article

What is good bioethics? Addressing this question is key for reinforcing and developing the field. In particular, a discussion of potential quality criteria can heighten awareness and contribute to the quality ...

Authors: Bjørn Hofmann and Morten Magelssen

Commodification of care and its effects on maternal health in the Noun division (West Region – Cameroon)

Since the mid-1980s, there has been a gradual ethical drift in the provision of maternal care in African health facilities in general, and in Cameroon in particular, despite government efforts. In fact, in Cam...

Authors: Ibrahim Bienvenu Mouliom Moungbakou

Integrated primary health care in low- and middle-income countries: a double challenge

The lack of primary healthcare integration has been identified as one of the main limits to programs’ efficacy in low- and middle-income countries. This is especially relevant to the Millennium Development Goa...

Authors: Thomas Druetz

Introduction to Ethics and Global Health

Authors: Beatrice Godard, Slim Haddad, Robert Huish and Daniel Weinstock

A reflection on the challenge of protecting confidentiality of participants while disseminating research results locally

Researchers studying health systems in low-income countries face a myriad of ethical challenges throughout the entire research process. In this article, we discuss one of the greatest ethical challenges that w...

Authors: Anne-Marie Turcotte-Tremblay and Esther Mc Sween-Cadieux

Evaluation as institution: a contractarian argument for needs-based economic evaluation

There is a gap between health economic evaluation methods and the value judgments of coverage decision makers, at least in Germany. Measuring preference satisfaction has been claimed to be inappropriate for al...

Authors: Wolf H. Rogowski

Opening the debate on deep brain stimulation for Alzheimer disease – a critical evaluation of rationale, shortcomings, and ethical justification

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) as investigational intervention for symptomatic relief from Alzheimer disease (AD) has generated big expectations. Our aim is to discuss the ethical justification of this research ...

Authors: Merlin Bittlinger and Sabine Müller

Advance directive: does the GP know and address what the patient wants? Advance directive in primary care

Due to the rapid changes in the medical world and the aging population, the need for advanced care planning grows.

Authors: Guda Scholten, Sofie Bourguignon, Anthony Delanote, Bieke Vermeulen, Geert Van Boxem and Birgitte Schoenmakers

Identification of ethics committees based on authors’ disclosures: cross-sectional study of articles published in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology and a survey of ethics committees

Since 2010, the European Journal of Anaesthesiology has required the reporting of five items concerning ethical approval in articles describing human research: ethics committee’s name and address, chairperson’...

Authors: Davide Zoccatelli, Martin R. Tramèr and Nadia Elia

The dual use of research ethics committees: why professional self-governance falls short in preserving biosecurity

Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) constitutes a major challenge for research practice and oversight on the local, national and international level. The situation in Germany is shaped by two partly competing ...

Authors: Sabine Salloch

The significance of ethics reflection groups in mental health care: a focus group study among health care professionals

Professionals within the mental health services face many ethical dilemmas and challenging situations regarding the use of coercion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of participating ...

Authors: Marit Helene Hem, Bert Molewijk, Elisabeth Gjerberg, Lillian Lillemoen and Reidar Pedersen

Medicine, market and communication: ethical considerations in regard to persuasive communication in direct-to-consumer genetic testing services

Commercial genetic testing offered over the internet, known as direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC GT), currently is under ethical attack. A common critique aims at the limited validation of the tests as w...

Authors: Manuel Schaper and Silke Schicktanz

Leadership in palliative medicine: moral, ethical and educational

Making particular use of Shale’s analysis, this paper discusses the notion of leadership in the context of palliative medicine. Whilst offering a critical perspective, I build on the philosophy of palliative c...

Authors: Nathan Emmerich

The patient perspective in health care networks

Health care organization is entering a new age. Focus is increasingly shifting from individual health care institutions to interorganizational collaboration and health care networks. Much hope is set on such n...

Authors: Kasper Raus, Eric Mortier and Kristof Eeckloo

Changes in attitudes towards hastened death among Finnish physicians over the past sixteen years

The ethics of hastened death are complex. Studies on physicians’ opinions about assisted dying (euthanasia or assisted suicide) exist, but changes in physicians’ attitudes towards hastened death in clinical de...

Authors: Reetta P. Piili, Riina Metsänoja, Heikki Hinkka, Pirkko-Liisa I. Kellokumpu-Lehtinen and Juho T. Lehto

Surgical informed consent in obstetric and gynecologic surgeries: experience from a comprehensive teaching hospital in Southern Ethiopia

Surgical Informed Consent (SIC) has long been recognized as an important component of modern medicine. The ultimate goals of SIC are to improve clients’ understanding of the intended procedure, increase client...

Authors: Million Teshome, Zenebe Wolde, Abel Gedefaw, Mequanent Tariku and Anteneh Asefa

Research ethics review at University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM)/Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique (2013–2016): a descriptive analysis of the start-up of a new research ethics committee (REC)

Mozambique has seen remarkable growth in biomedical research over the last decade. To meet a growing need, the National Committee for Bioethics in Health of Mozambique (CNBS) encouraged the development of ethi...

Authors: Jahit Sacarlal, Vasco Muchanga, Carlos Mabutana, Matilde Mabui, Arlete Mariamo, Assa Júlio Cuamba, Leida Artur Fumo, Jacinta Silveira, Elizabeth Heitman and Troy D. Moon