Research Ethics

Last Updated 08/04/2020

Op-Eds and Blog Posts

• Ben Bramble, “Why ‘Human Challenge’ Vaccine Trials for COVID-19 are Morally Permissible, But Only if We Lock Down, Test, and Contract-trace Properly,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, July 15.
• Robert Steel, Lara Buchak, and Nir Eyal, “Finding a Vaccine Against the Novel Coronavirus: Why Challenge Trials Can be Ethical Even When a Lot Remains Unknown,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, July 14, 2020.
• Michael Keane, “COVID-19: Time to Rethink the RCT and Consider more Efficient and Ethical Approaches to Clinical Knowledge Acquisition,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, July 8, 2020.
• Kei Mukohara, “Patient Consent for COVID-19 REGISTRY JAPAN and the Favipiravir Observational Study,” Bioethics.net, July 7, 2020.
• Kyle Ferguson and Arthur Caplan, “Accepting the Challenge: COVID Vaccine Challenge Trials Can be Ethically Justified,” Bioethics Forum, June 29, 2020.
• Isabelle Malhamé, Rohan D’Souza, and Matthew P. Cheng, “The Moral Imperative to Include Pregnant Women in Clinical Trials of Interventions for COVID-19,” Annals of Internal Medicine, June 29, 2020.
• Michael Rosenblatt, “Human Challenge Trials with Live Coronavirus aren’t the Answer to a COVID-19 Vaccine,” STAT News, June 23, 2020.
• Susan Bull et al., “How Should the Risks of Infecting Research Participants with SARS-CoV-2 be Assessed?” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, June 22, 2020.
• Anna Chiumento and Lucy Frith, “Ethical Oversight During COVID-19: Rewriting the Norms of Research Ethics Review?” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, June 16, 2020.
• Ruth Macklin, “Human Challenge Studies for COVID-19 Vaccine: Questions about Benefits and Risks,” Bioethics Forum, June 15, 2020.
• Kayleigh Garthwaite et al., “Researching Poverty in the Pandemic: Thinking Through Ethical Issues and Challenges,” Social Policy Association Blog, June 8, 2020.
• William A. Haseltine, “Human COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Are Unnecessary, Uninformative, and Unethical,” Project Syndicate, June 4, 2020.
• Seema K. Shah, Holly Fernandez Lynch, and Franklin G. Miller, “Before Deliberately Infecting People With Coronavirus, Be Sure It’s Worth It,” The New York Times, June 2, 2020.
• Joshua Teperowski Monrad, “We Need a Framework for the Ethics of Secondary Epidemic Vaccine Trials,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, May 20, 2020.
• Ruth Macklin, “Human Challenge Studies for a COVID-19 Vaccine: Ethical Quandaries,” Albert Einstein College of Medicine: The Doctor’s Tablet Blog, May 15, 2020.
• Katharine Wright and Julian Sheather, “The Role of Solidarity in Research in Global Health Emergencies,” Bioethics.net, May 11, 2020.
• Bartha Maria Knoppers et al., “Modelling Consent in the Time of COVID-19,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, May 8, 2020.
• Michael A. Erdek, “Ethical Responsibility in Publishing Research Results on COVID-19 Treatments,” Bioethics Forum, April 30, 2020.
• Robert M. Veatch, “Clinical Trials vs. Right to Try: Ethical Use of Chloroquine for COVID-19,” Bioethics Forum, April 29, 2020.
• Julian Savulescu and Dominic Wilkinson, “Extreme Altruism in a Pandemic,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, April 23, 2020.
• Julian C. Hughes and Julian Sheather, “COVID-19: ‘Contagion to this World’ and the Demand for Ethical Research,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, April 19, 2020.
• Karen J. Maschke and Michael K. Gusmano, “Ethics and Evidence in the Search for a Vaccine and Treatments for COVID-19,” Bioethics Forum, April 15, 2020.
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Research in Global Health Emergencies, January 28, 2020.

Academic Articles

• Jerry Menikoff, “The Regulation of COVID-19 ‘Challenge’ Studies,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Bryan A. Sisk and James DuBois, “Research Ethics during a Pandemic: A Call for Normative and Empirical Analysis,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Sarah Weiten, Alyssa Burgart, and Mildred Cho, “Resource Allocation in COVID-19 Research: Which Trials? Which Patients?” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Ori Rozenberg and Dov Greenbaum, “Making It Count: Extracting Real World Data from Compassionate Use and Expanded Access Programs,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Angus Dawson, “Pandemic Vaccine Trials: Expedite, But Don’t Rush,” Research Ethics, July 22, 2020.
• Nandini K. Kumar and Vasantha Muthuswamy, “Fostering Ethical Biomedical and Health Research in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Research Ethics, July 16, 2020.
• Nicholas G. Evans, “Human Infection Challenge Studies: A Test for the Social Value Criterion of Research Ethics,” mSphere, July 15, 2020.
• Robert Steel, Lara Buchak, and Nir Eyal, “Why Continuing Uncertainties are No Reason to Postpone Challenge Trials for Coronavirus Vaccines,” Journal of Medical Ethics, July 13, 2020.
• Muhammed O. Afolabi et al., “Lessons from the Ebola Epidemics and their Applications for COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Developing World Bioethics, July 12, 2020.
• Yves S. J. Aquino and Nicolo Cabrera, “Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19: Critiquing the Impact of Disease Public Profile on Policy and Clinical Decision-Making,” Journal of Medical Ethics, July 9, 2020.
• Holly Fernandez Lynch et al., “Regulatory Flexibility for COVID-19 Research,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences,” July 7, 2020.
• Søren Holm, “Controlled Human Infection with SARS-CoV-2 to Study COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments: Bioethics in Utopia,” Journal of Medical Ethics, July 2, 2020.
• Godfrey B. Tangwa and Nchangwi Syntia Munung, “COVID-19: Africa’s Relation with Epidemics and Some Imperative Ethics Considerations of the Moment,” Research Ethics, June 27, 2020.
• Douglas B. White and Derek C. Angus, “A Proposed Lottery System to Allocate Scarce COVID-19 Medications: Promoting Fairness and Generating Knowledge,” JAMA, June 24, 2020.
• Alexander A. Iyer, Saskia Hendriks, and Annette Rid, “Advantages of Using Lotteries to Select Participants for High-Demand COVID-19 Treatment Trials,” Ethics & Human Research, June 22, 2020.
• Ruth Farrell, Marsha Michie, and Rachel Pope, “Pregnant Women in Trials of COVID-19: A Critical Time to Consider Ethical Frameworks of Inclusion in Clinical Trials,” Ethics & Human Research, June 20, 2020.
• Kenneth V. Iserson, “SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccine Development and Production: An Ethical Way Forward,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, June 5, 2020.G.
• Hiroyasu Ino, Eisuke Nakazawa and Akira Akabayashi, “Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: Ethical Considerations and Roadmaps,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, June 5, 2020.
• G. Owen Schaefer et al., “COVID-19 Vaccine Development: Time to Consider SARS-CoV-2 Challenge Studies?” Vaccine, June 4, 2020.
• Nir Eyal, Marc Lipsitch, and Peter G. Smith, “Response to Dawson et al,” The Journal of Infectious Disease, June 4, 2020.
• Liza Dawson, Jake Earl, and Jeffrey Livezey, “SARS-CoV-2 Human Challenge Trials: Too Risky, Too Soon,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, June 4, 2020.
• Richard Yetter Chappell and Peter Singer, “Pandemic Ethics: The Case for Risky Research,” Research Ethics, June 2, 2020.
• Emily A. Largent and Holly Fernandez Lynch, “Paying Participants in COVID-19 Trials,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, May 29, 2020.
• Euzebiusz Jamrozik and Michael J. Selgelid, “COVID-19 Human Challenge Studies: Ethical Issues,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, May 29, 2020.
• Nicholas G. Evans, “COVID-19: The Ethics of Clinical Research in Quarantine,” BMJ, May 29, 2020.
• Vicki Xafis et al., “The Perfect Moral Storm: Diverse Ethical Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Asian Bioethics Review, May 28, 2020.
• Francois Bompart, “Ethical Rationale for Better Coordination of Clinical Research on COVID-19,” Research Ethics, May 28, 2020.
• Adair D. Richards, “Ethical Guidelines for Deliberately Infecting Volunteers with COVID-19,” Journal of Medical Ethics, May 27, 2020.
• Nir Eyal, “Why Challenge Trials of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Could be Ethical Despite Risk of Severe Adverse Events,” Ethics and Human Research, May 22, 2020.
• Megan Doerr and Jennifer K. Wagner, “Research Ethics in a Pandemic: Considerations for the use of Research Infrastructure and Resources for Public Health Activities,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, May 18, 2020.
• Nancy M.P. King, “Justice and Domestic Health Research,” Ethics & Human Research, May 18, 2020.
• Joshua Teperowski Monrad, “Ethical Considerations for Epidemic Vaccine Trials,” Journal of Medical Ethics, May 15, 2020.
• Angus Dawson et al., “Key Ethical Concepts and Their Application to COVID-19 Research,” Public Health Ethics, May 15, 2020.
• Maxwell J. Smith, Ross E.G. Upshur, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, “Publication Ethics During Public Health Emergencies Such as the COVID-19 Pandemic,” American Journal of Public Health, May 14, 2020.
• Carl H. Coleman, “Equitably Sharing the Benefits and Burdens of Research: COVID-19 Raises the Stakes,” Ethics & Human Research, May 14, 2020.
• Ariadne A. Nichol, “Potential Implications of Testing an Experimental mRNA-Based Vaccine During an Emerging Infectious Disease Pandemic,” The American Journal of Bioethics, May 14, 2020.
• Adam J. Kolber, “Why We (Probably) Must Deliberately Infect,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, May 11, 2020.
• Seema K. Shah et al., “Ethics of Controlled Human Infection to Study COVID-19,” Science, May 7, 2020.
• Ivry Zagury-Orly and Richard M. Schwartzstein, “COVID-19 – A Reminder to Reason,” The New England Journal of Medicine, April 28, 2020.
• Alex John London and Jonathan Kimmelman, “Against Pandemic Research Exceptionalism,” Science, April 23, 2020.
• Stanley A. Plotkin and Arthur Caplan, “Extraordinary Diseases Require Extraordinary Solutions,” Vaccine 38 (2020): 3987-3988, (April 20).
• Nir Eyal, Marc Lipsitch, and Peter G. Smith, “Human Challenge Studies to Accelerate Coronavirus Vaccine Licensure,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, March 31, 2020.
• Maxwell Smith and Ross Upshur, “Pandemic Disease, Public Health, and Ethics,” in The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, edited by Anna C. Mastroianni, Jeffrey P. Kahn, and Nancy E. Kass (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).