Wahlberg, Ayo, Rehmann-Sutter, Christoph, Sleeboom-Faulkner, Margaret, Lu, Guangxiu, Döring, Ole, Cong, Yali, Laska-Formejster, Alicja, He, Jing, Chen, Haidan, Gottweis, Herbert and Rose, Nikolas (2013) From global bioethics to ethical governance of biomedical research collaborations. Social Science and Medicine, 98. pp. 293-300. ISSN 0277-9536

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Global Studies > Anthropology
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation
Depositing User:	Nadya Herrera Catalan
Date Deposited:	09 Nov 2015 09:52
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2015 01:17
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/57808

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