Have We Become Too Ethical? Managing vulnerability in social science research on health. (360G-Wellcome-107771_Z_15_Z)

Over the last decades the social sciences have adopted a model of ethical review based on the medical sciences. Questions have been raised about the appropriateness of a one-size-fits-all approach to ethical review in qualitative health research and particularly where vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups are involved. Our aim is to identify systematically the issues that underpin these concerns and examine how, through dialogue across health-related disciplines, new approaches might be deve loped to ensure better protection of subjects and better qualitative health research. We intend to accomplish this through a symposium, which will engage stake-holder communities (approx. 120 persons) and a small colloquium of experts from a range of disciplines gathered to consolidate outputs from the symposium (approx. 15 persons). We expect to explore three key areas (contextual factors in ethical review; Competence of reviewers; and informed consent) in both ethical review in the West a nd in international collaborations, where review systems and ethical issues often clash. The planned outputs comprise a special edition of a high profile journal with an introduction based on iterative reflection on the colloquium, and a briefing for use in health-related research among vulnerable populations and ethics committees.