Research

Research News

Paper by Mupenda and Rennie entitled 'The ethics of premarital HIV testing in Africa: the case of Goma, DR Congo' has been published by Developing World Bioethics (June 2007). It is available here.

Paper by Rennie, Westreich and Muula has been accepted by the Journal for Medical Ethics. Online version available here.

Research spotlight

There is a new journal that should be of great interest to bioethicists working in the field, particularly in international health research: the Journal for Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics (JERHRE). The stated aim of the journal is to improve ethical problem- solving by encouraging empirical (social science) research on ethical issues as they emerge in research involving human participants, and enhancing collaboration and communication between stakeholders in the enterprise of the ethical conduct of research. A member of our project, Dr. Botbol-Baum, is currently a consulting editor of JERHRE.

Researchers connected to our bioethics project and/or active in global health research at UNC-Chapel Hill (Amy Corneli, Gail Henderson, Margaret Bentley) have published an article in JERHRE entitled Using Formative Research to Develop A Context-Specific Approach to Informed Consent for Clinical Trials. It is an excellent example of how social science research can contribute positively to the ethical conduct of international health research.

For more on this study, visit the webpage here.

Current interests and activities of project members

Mylene Botbol-Baum, Professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain's Center for Bioethics, has published extensively over a broad range of bioethical themes. References to her past research can be found on Prof. Botbol-Baum's scientific page, where some articles are available as (copyrighted) pdf files. Prof. Botbol-Baum's current research focuses on issues of gender, technology and biomedical research in the developing world. Her new book, co-authored with Nathan Clumeck and Jean-Godefroy Bidima, is entitled Quelle bioéthique pour les pays du sud? (Which bioethics for the countries of the south?) and has been published by Editions L'Harmattan. A paper on women's narratives will be published by UNESCO. A recent article by Prof. Botbol-Baum, published in the African Journal of Medicine, entitled 'Sen and Nussbaum's capability approach and the transfer of biotechnology in Africa: conditions of transitive justice' is available (in Word format) here.

Frieda Behets, Associate Professor of epidemiology at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, focuses on ethical issues arising from her operational research of HIV/AIDS, STIs and sexually transmitted diseases among pregnant women and sex workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Prof. Behets is co-author of an article (with Stuart Rennie) on the ethics of rationing antiretroviral treatment in low-income countries to appear in Hastings Center Report. She has also co-authored (with Stuart Rennie) a paper on the ethical issues surrounding routine HIV testing in resource-poor countries, accepted for publication by the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Stuart Rennie, Research Assistant Professor in bioethics at UNC-Chapel Hill, is currently conducting qualitative research on community attitudes towards rationing of antiretroviral treatment in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has published a paper in Developing World Bioethics entitled 'Should we study what ought not to happen?' on the position of Doctors without Borders towards rationing of antiretroviral treatment. He plans future empirical and conceptual research on the ethics of circumcision as HIV prevention strategy. He has secured an NIH grant to study attitudes towards male circumcision and HIV in Malawi, and has written (with Adamson Muula and Daniel Westreich) a paper on the ethics of male circumicision as HIV prevention strategy for the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Bavon Mupenda, Fogarty scholar, is currently working on a qualitative research project on HIV prevention among youth already infected by HIV in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He will be working together in a team led by Frieda Behets, Audrey Pettifor and Sandra Duvall. Data from the research will form the basis of his PhD at the Kinshasa School of Public Health. He is also working on a research paper (together with Stuart Rennie) on premarital HIV testing in Africa, especially the region of Goma in the eastern DR Congo. Bavon is co-author of a recent article in PLoS Medicine, entitled 'The Structure and Function of Research Ethics Committees in Africa: A Case Study' (January 2007), available here.

Felicien Munday is former Fogarty scholar aligned with the bioethics unit within the Department of Humanities and Letters at the University of Kinshasa, where he is acting program manager. He is currently pursuiting a PhD in philosophy at University of Kinshasa on the ethical acceptability and impact of reproductive technologies in an African context. A paper by Felicien on bioethics and African philosophy (in French) is available here.