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

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

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, crosscontinental 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’ e deliberation, regulation, oversight and interaction e 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, crosscontinental 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’ e deliberation, regulation, oversight and interaction e 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.

U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.041

DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.041

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 23623168

VL - 98

SP - 293

EP - 300

JO - Social Science & Medicine

JF - Social Science & Medicine

SN - 0277-9536

ER -