TY - JOUR
T1 - Reimagining research ethics to include environmental sustainability
T2 - a principled approach, including a case study of data-driven health research
AU - Samuel, Gabrielle
AU - Richie, Cristina
N1 - Funding Information:
None declared.GS is the guarantor. CR's research was partially funded by the Technology University of Delft/ Erasmus Medical College Convergence ethics project.
Funding Information:
This work received funding from Wellcome (222180/Z/20/Z).
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2022/8/3
Y1 - 2022/8/3
N2 - In this paper we argue the need to reimagine research ethics frameworks to include notions of environmental sustainability. While there have long been calls for healthcare ethics frameworks and decision-making to include aspects of sustainability, less attention has focused on how research ethics frameworks could address this. To do this, we first describe the traditional approach to research ethics, which often relies on individualised notions of risk. We argue that we need to broaden this notion of individual risk to consider issues associated with environmental sustainability. This is because research is associated with carbon emissions and other environmental impacts, both of which cause climate change health hazards. We introduce how bioethics frameworks have considered notions of environmental sustainability and draw on these to help develop a framework suitable for researchers. We provide a case study of data-driven health research to apply our framework.
AB - In this paper we argue the need to reimagine research ethics frameworks to include notions of environmental sustainability. While there have long been calls for healthcare ethics frameworks and decision-making to include aspects of sustainability, less attention has focused on how research ethics frameworks could address this. To do this, we first describe the traditional approach to research ethics, which often relies on individualised notions of risk. We argue that we need to broaden this notion of individual risk to consider issues associated with environmental sustainability. This is because research is associated with carbon emissions and other environmental impacts, both of which cause climate change health hazards. We introduce how bioethics frameworks have considered notions of environmental sustainability and draw on these to help develop a framework suitable for researchers. We provide a case study of data-driven health research to apply our framework.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135916646&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/jme-2022-108489
DO - 10.1136/jme-2022-108489
M3 - Article
SN - 0306-6800
JO - Journal of Medical Ethics
JF - Journal of Medical Ethics
M1 - 108489
ER -
