Ethical Issues in Global Health Research
Responsibility to the Study Community
This section interrogates the relationship between the researchers (and their research communities with their agendas) and
the communities being studied (their rightful interests, how 'interested' or 'disinterested' are they in the research being conducted, and possible long-term benefits and costs might they be expected to bear or enjoy). A contextual analysis of this question
is important to the idea of ethical research. This mandates an
examination of (a) the history of research on non-white groups and in the
developing world, and considering (b) the attitudes of researchers to their study
subjects, as well as (c) the relationships of (i) power and (ii) information that
make clinical research problematic. Questions, such as (a) the availability
to the public of study data, (b) the capacity to implement research
results, and (c) for whom and to whose benefit is the research, will be
raised and considered.