Impediments to "T2" research: are ethics really to blame?

Ever since the emergence of the field of research ethics, concerns have existed about the possibility that regulation of research might “cripple”, if not eliminate, research in important fields (Beecher 1959). In recent years research ethics review has been accused of impeding basic and translational research and of being responsible for driving medical research from the industrialised West to “less heavily regulated” regions (e.g. Russia, Africa, China, India, Latin America and Brazil) (Asprey 2010). Indeed, while research ethics committees are sometimes criticized for existing primarily to serve the interests of research scientists and academic and commercial organizations, these committees and other regulatory structures have also been characterized as “regimes of ethical control” which seriously threaten both scientific progress and academic freedom (Boden, Epstein, and Latimer 2009).