ABSTRACT
The* exploitation of low-income countries (LICs) in biomedical research directed by sponsors in high-income countries (HICs) has become a signišcant ethical issue in an increasingly global economy, in which national borders no longer present barriers to science, research, and business. The term exploitation itself can take on a range of dešnitions, even within the narrow realm of biomedical research. One simple dešnition is the unfair distribution of the benešts of biomedical research in the context of international collaborative research (Lavery 2004). In contrast, a more in-depth dešnition specišes the use of power differentials without consideration of harm to participants, using research participants to obtain knowledge without making the benešts of the research available to the participants or their communities, conducting studies with minimal benešt to the participants and their communities while maximizing šnancial long-term benešts for the research sponsors, or denying post-trial
Introduction ............................................................................................................287 Philosophical Framework for Ethical Applications ............................................... 289 Ethical Sharing of the Benešts of Biomedical Research .......................................290 Research Ethics Committees in Host and Sponsoring Countries .......................... 291 The Biopower Lens ................................................................................................ 293 Policy Implications ................................................................................................296 Policy Recommendations .......................................................................................297 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 298 References .............................................................................................................. 298
use of benešcial therapies developed in the trial to the participants (Benatar 2007). However specišcally one dešnes the term, it is clear that the exploitation of vulnerable populations in biomedical research is ethically unacceptable and is of increasing importance on the international stage.
