The future health of infants and children is dependent on the performance of clinical research in which infants participate. Achieving a proper balance between this social good and the obligation to protect infants who participate in research is a significant challenge. As investigators design and implement research protocols, they should be aware of the ethical and legal requirements that gove...

BACKGROUND All research involving human participants should be reviewed by a competent and independent institutional research and ethics committee. Research conducted at Makerere University College of Health Sciences should be subjected to a rigorous review process by the ethics committee in order to protect human participants' interests, rights and welfare. OBJECTIVE To evaluate researchers'...

In this review of the Korean cloning scandal involving Woo-Suk Hwang, the nature of the disaster is documented and reasons why it occurred are suggested. The general problems it raises for scientific research are highlighted and six possible ways of improving practice are offered in the light of this case: (1) better education of science students; (2) independent monitoring and validation; (3) ...

OBJECTIVE To report on part of a pilot study done to explore ethical responses to the new reproductive technologies in Sri Lanka. DESIGN Semi-structured interviews carried out with the members of three committees responsible for ethical review of medical research. Members were asked for their views on the ethical, social and legal implications of the new reproductive and genetic technologies....

Patients with childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer who will be treated gonadotoxic therapies are at increased risk for infertility. Many patients their families desire biological children but effective communication about treatment-related infertility procedures fertility preservation does not always happen. The PanCareLIFE Consortium the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer ...

Given the focus on health systems in the post-millennium development goal era and moving towards the sustainable development goals, there is a compelling need for a common framework for health policy and systems research ethics to guide researchers and facilitate review by research ethics committees. A consultation of global health policy and systems research and ethics experts was convened to ...

BACKGROUND Growing concerns about the value and effectiveness of short-term volunteer trips intending to improve health in underserved Global South communities has driven the development of guidelines by multiple organizations and individuals. These are intended to mitigate potential harms and maximize benefits associated with such efforts. METHOD This paper analyzes 27 guidelines derived fro...

When the US Congress created the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Program in 1972, it gave physicians the responsibility of determining which patients were "appropriate" for dialysis. Congress provided no guidance on who should be selected or how. Only five years later, Dr. Belding Scribner, the father of chronic dialysis, noted that there was a need for a "deselection committee" because virtuall...