TY - JOUR
T1 - From global bioethics to ethical governance of biomedical research collaborations
AU - Wahlberg, Ayo
AU - Rehmann-Sutter, Christoph
AU - Sleeboom-Faulkner, Margaret
AU - Lu, Guangxiu
AU - Döring, Ole
AU - Cong, Yali
AU - Laska-Formejster, Alicja
AU - He, Jing
AU - Chen, Haidan
AU - Gottweis, Herbert
AU - Rose, Nikolas
N1 - © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2013/12/1
Y1 - 2013/12/1
N2 - One of the features of advanced life sciences research in recent years has been its internationalisation, with countries such as China and South Korea considered 'emerging biotech' locations. As a result, cross-continental collaborations are becoming common generating moves towards ethical and legal standardisation under the rubric of 'global bioethics'. Such a 'global', 'Western' or 'universal' bioethics has in turn been critiqued as an imposition upon resource-poor, non-Western or local medical settings. In this article, we propose that a different tack is necessary if we are to come to grips with the ethical challenges that inter-continental biomedical research collaborations generate. In particular we ask how national systems of ethical governance of life science research might cope with increasingly global research collaborations with a focus on Sino-European collaboration. We propose four 'spheres' - deliberation, regulation, oversight and interaction - as a helpful way to conceptualise national systems of ethical governance. Using a workshop-based mapping methodology (workshops held in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Xian, Shenzen and London) we identified three specific ethical challenges arising from cross-continental research collaborations: (1) ambiguity as to which regulations are applicable; (2) lack of ethical review capacity not only among ethical review board members but also collaborating scientists; (3) already complex, researcher-research subject interaction is further complicated when many nationalities are involved.
AB - One of the features of advanced life sciences research in recent years has been its internationalisation, with countries such as China and South Korea considered 'emerging biotech' locations. As a result, cross-continental collaborations are becoming common generating moves towards ethical and legal standardisation under the rubric of 'global bioethics'. Such a 'global', 'Western' or 'universal' bioethics has in turn been critiqued as an imposition upon resource-poor, non-Western or local medical settings. In this article, we propose that a different tack is necessary if we are to come to grips with the ethical challenges that inter-continental biomedical research collaborations generate. In particular we ask how national systems of ethical governance of life science research might cope with increasingly global research collaborations with a focus on Sino-European collaboration. We propose four 'spheres' - deliberation, regulation, oversight and interaction - as a helpful way to conceptualise national systems of ethical governance. Using a workshop-based mapping methodology (workshops held in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Xian, Shenzen and London) we identified three specific ethical challenges arising from cross-continental research collaborations: (1) ambiguity as to which regulations are applicable; (2) lack of ethical review capacity not only among ethical review board members but also collaborating scientists; (3) already complex, researcher-research subject interaction is further complicated when many nationalities are involved.
KW - Ethical governance
KW - Europe
KW - Global bioethics
KW - Informed consent
KW - People's Republic of China
KW - Regulation
KW - Research collaboration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84890132189&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.041
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.041
M3 - Article
C2 - 23623168
AN - SCOPUS:84890132189
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 98
SP - 293
EP - 300
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
ER -