Human Research Ethics Online Training
II. A Brief History of Research Ethics Violations and Regulation
Controversy Over Art Trials in Africa (continued)
While the issues involved are specific to biomedical research, no researchers should use a different standard of research ethics in other countries or amongst other populations than they would use amongst their own people.
In other words, if researchers can get away with different ethical standards when they do research in poor countries than they could get away with in their own wealthier countries, then there is a clear incentive to use poor people as their "guinea pigs." This violates the Helsinki declaration which says that no population should disproportionately bear the risks, or reap the benefits, of research.
It is reminiscent of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which poor African Americans were studied and not given any treatment for syphilis, while at the very same time elsewhere in the same state, others were given antibiotics to cure their syphilis. In the ART trial controversies, we see that certain parts of the world have been identified as cheap places to do research, but the same standards of care are not applied.
