Above: San Children in Andriesvaal, Kalahari, South Africa (by Migail de Klerk).
Exporting unethical practices to low- and middle-income countries has become the new face of exploitative research, writes Doris Schroeder
The Biologist 66(3) p22-25
Bioscientists and biomedical scientists rely heavily on external resources to do their research
. While philosophers can publish groundbreaking research after a quiet stay in a mountain hut, bioscientists generally need access to research participants, genetic samples, microorganisms and experimental animals, to name just a few resources. This means that bioscience is often the focus of debates in research ethics.
Nazi medical experiments and the Tuskegee trials in the US, where black men with syphilis were denied treatment to see how the disease progresses naturally, are examples of horrendously exploitative biomedical research.