BACKGROUND There exists a need throughout the North to increase capacity to address issues of health ethics and for community members to better understand and share their perspectives on this topic. Ethics comes down to weighing rights and wrongs, evaluating differing needs and understandings, acknowledging the many shades of grey and doing our best to come up with the just, fair and moral appr...

Introduction: Considering the ever-increasing developments in medical research, especially the use of human subjects in research projects, the implementation of such research according to the ethical principles and criteria of creditable national and international declarations is of great significance. The present study aimed to investigate the rate of observance of research ethics in proposals...

Access to patients and their records for non-clinical purposes has recently come under scrutiny. Research ethics committees control access for research purposes, but audit is explicitly excluded from their remit. Although there is consensus that locally organised audits do not need ethical approval, the status of larger scale audits designed to influence broader practice remains unclear; some j...

Ethical misconduct is not a new issue in the history of science and literature. However, ethical misconducts in science have grown considerably in the modern era which is due to emphasis on the scientific proliferation in research institutes and gauging scientists according to their publications. In the current case series, several misconducts occurring over the previous years in Mashhad Univer...

Since 1985, UNESCO studies ethical questions arising in genetics. In 1992, I established the International Bioethics Committee at UNESCO with the mission to draft the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1997 and the United Nations in 1998. The Declaration relates the human genome with human dignity, deals with the rights of the persons conc...

There are different approaches to treat patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD): hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, renal transplantation and conservative medical management. The choice of the best therapy for each patient, needs both clinical and ethical skills. The Ethics Committee of the Chilean Society of Nephrology has elaborated recommendations to help health workers to deal with the...

Xenotransplantation (XTx) provides a potential solution to the shortage of human organs and tissues, and has several advantages over other possible solutions to this problem. However, a number of scientific and ethical barriers exist, and need to be addressed in order to advance the field of XTx in a manner that optimizes its potential to benefit society and minimizes its risk. Some of the most...

The data used in this study were collected as part of the monitoring and evaluation processes of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative programs taking place in Niger. Sequences were obtained using the DNA sequencing facilities in the Natural History Museum. Ethical approval for this research was granted by the Niger Ministry of Health Ethical Review Board and by the Imperial College Research E...

Pregnant women traditionally have been assigned priority in the allocation of prevention and treatment resources during outbreaks of influenza because of their increased risk of morbidity and mortality. The Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists explores ethical justifications for assigning priority for prevention and treatment resources to pregnant women...