Programme : Ethical review boards: are they important ethical safeguards or over-burdensome and unnecessary bureaucracy? : Abstract of keynote presentation
Are research ethics committees working in the best interests of participants in an increasingly globalised research environment?
Professor Don Chalmers
Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, Australia
Nobel Laureate, Iosif Brodsky, has said, “The philosophy of the state, its ethics –are always “yesterday”. This prompts the important question whether Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are applying yesterday’s ethics and may not be properly equipped to work in the best interests of participants in an increasingly globalised research environment. There may need to be changes in the regulation and governance of RECs to meet the demands of “tomorrow”. This paper considers some changes that are emerging and required in the governance of research and RECs, managing conflicts of interest in the face of increasing commercialisation, increasing research involving data linkage and collaboration between databases in different countries, privacy across national borders and some aspects of clinical trials in an increasingly globalised research environment.
Email: don.chalmers@utas.edu.au
More: Don Chalmer is Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania and Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Chair Gene Technology Ethics Committee, Deputy Chair Embryo Research Licensing Committee.
Acknowledgements: Professor Chalmers wishes to thank the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant DP 0559760) for support.
This conference is arranged by Cesagen at the universities of Lancaster and Cardiff and the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics at Uppsala University.