The ethics of medical research in Africa

The conduct of medical research in African countries raises ethical concerns occasioned by the high level of poverty and illiteracy that is prevalent on that continent. This makes research subjects in that setting potentially vulnerable to exploitation and harm in a way research subjects in affluent countries are not. For that reason, mechanisms of protection in the form of regulatory guidelines have been put in place to ensure that research subjects in impoverished settings are not exploited. The aim of this book is to highlight, how at present, instruments of protection in the medical research setting do not serve their desired objectives. Based on the inadequacies of regulatory guidelines as sole instruments of protection in the conduct of medical research in low-resource countries, a framework which does not violate international regulatory guidelines was suggested for use in the research setting. The suggested framework is only designed for use in African countries and not a template to be employed in all developing countries. In this way, one of the pit-falls associated with the ‘fair-benefits’ framework is avoided