Abstract:
BACKGROUND:The use of tissue collected at a forensic post-mortem for forensic genetics research purposes remains of ethical concern as the process involves obtaining informed consent from grieving family members. Two forensic genetics research studies using tissue collected from a forensic post-mortem were recently initiated at our institution and were the first of their kind to be conducted in Cape Town, South Africa. MAIN BODY:This article discusses some of the ethical challenges that were encountered in these research projects. Among these challenges was the adaptation of research workflows to fit in with an exceptionally busy service delivery that is operating with limited resources. Whilst seeking guidance from the literature regarding research on deceased populations, it was noted that next of kin of decedents are not formally recognised as a vulnerable group in the existing ethical and legal frameworks in South Africa. The authors recommend that research in the forensic mortuary setting is approached using guidance for vulnerable groups, and the benefit to risk standard needs to be strongly justified. Lastly, when planning forensic genetics research, consideration must be given to the potential of uncovering incidental findings, funding to validate these findings and the feedback of results to family members; the latter of which is recommended to occur through a genetic counsellor. CONCLUSION:It is hoped that these experiences will contribute towards a formal framework for conducting forensic genetic research in medico-legal mortuaries in South Africa.
journal_name
BMC Med Ethicsjournal_title
BMC medical ethicsauthors
Heathfield LJ,Maistry S,Martin LJ,Ramesar R,de Vries Jdoi
10.1186/s12910-017-0225-6subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2017-11-29 00:00:00pages
66issue
1issn
1472-6939pii
10.1186/s12910-017-0225-6journal_volume
18pub_type
杂志文章abstract:BACKGROUND:Moral Case Deliberations (MCDs) are reflective dialogues with a group of participants on their own moral dilemmas. Although MCD is successful as clinical ethics support (CES), it also has limitations. 1. Lessons learned from individual MCDs are not shared in order to be used in other contexts 2. Moral learni...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0335-9
更新日期:2018-12-22 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Health checks or health screenings identify (risk factors for) disease in people without a specific medical indication. So far, the perspective of (potential) health check users has remained underexposed in discussions about the ethics and regulation of health checks. METHODS:In 2017, we conducted a qualita...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0301-6
更新日期:2018-06-22 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Evidence concerning how Japanese physicians think and behave in specific clinical situations that involve withholding or withdrawal of medical interventions for end-of-life or frail elderly patients is yet insufficient. METHODS:To analyze decisions and actions concerning the withholding/withdrawal of life-s...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-8-7
更新日期:2007-06-19 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Making particular use of Shale's analysis, this paper discusses the notion of leadership in the context of palliative medicine. Whilst offering a critical perspective, I build on the philosophy of palliative care offered by Randall and Downie and suggest that the normative structure of this medical specialit...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0296-z
更新日期:2018-06-05 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:This debate article explores how smart technologies may create a double-edged sword for patient safety and effective therapeutic relationships. Increasing utilization of health monitoring devices by patients will likely become an important aspect of self-care and preventive medicine. It may also help to enha...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0255-8
更新日期:2018-03-06 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Plagiarism is considered as serious research misconduct, together with data fabrication and falsification. However, little is known about biomedical researchers' views on plagiarism. Moreover, it has been argued - based on limited empirical evidence - that perceptions of plagiarism depend on cultural and oth...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-020-00473-7
更新日期:2020-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Few empirical studies have been found that explore ethical challenges among persons in high public positions that are responsible for elder care. The aim of this paper was to illuminate the meaning of being in ethically difficult situations related to elder care as experienced by high level decision-makers. ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-8-3
更新日期:2007-04-10 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:It is widely acknowledged that there is a global divide on health care and health research known as the 10/90 divide. METHODS:A retrospective survey of articles published in the BMJ, Lancet, NEJM, Annals of Internal Medicine & JAMA in a calendar year to examine the contribution of the developing world to me...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-5-5
更新日期:2004-10-04 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Several charters of rights have been issued in Europe to solemnly proclaim the rights of children during their hospital stay. However, notwithstanding such general declarations, the actual implementation of hospitalized children's rights is unclear. The purpose of this study was to understand to which extent...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-015-0021-0
更新日期:2015-05-13 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Professional guidelines have addressed ethical dilemmas posed by a few types of nontraditional procreative arrangements (e.g., gamete donations between family members), but many questions arise regarding how providers view and make decisions about these and other such arrangements. METHODS:Thirty-seven ART ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0177-x
更新日期:2017-02-28 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) are well established at healthcare institutions in resource-rich countries. However, there is limited information on established CECs in resource poor countries, especially in Africa. This study aimed to establish baseline data regarding existing formal CECs in Africa to rai...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-020-00559-2
更新日期:2020-11-18 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Although informed consent is an integral part of clinical practice, its current doctrine remains mostly a matter of law and mainstream ethics rather than empirical research. There are scarce empirical data on patients' perceived purpose of informed consent, which may include administrative routine/courtesy g...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-15-2
更新日期:2014-01-10 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Africa continues to bear a disproportionate share of the global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria burden. The development and distribution of safe, effective and affordable vaccines is critical to reduce these epidemics. However, conducting HIV/AIDS, TB, and/or malaria vaccine trials simultaneously in ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-11-3
更新日期:2010-03-09 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:This paper explores ethical concerns arising in healthcare integration. We argue that integration is necessary imperative for meeting contemporary and future healthcare challenges, a far stronger evidence base for the conditions of its effectiveness is required. In particular, given the increasing emphasis a...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0386-6
更新日期:2019-07-03 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Community engagement (CE) models have provided much needed guidance for researchers to conceptualise and design engagement strategies for research projects. Most of the published strategies, however, still show very limited contribution of the community to the engagement process. One way of achieving this is...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0236-3
更新日期:2017-12-13 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Mobile applications and socio-sexual networking websites are used by outreach workers to respond synchronously to questions and provide information, resources, and referrals on sexual health and STI/HIV prevention, testing, and care to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GB2M). This explorator...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0216-7
更新日期:2017-11-03 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Patient outcome after serious brain injury is highly variable. Following a period of coma, some patients recover while others progress into a vegetative state (unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) or minimally conscious state. In both cases, assessment is difficult and misdiagnosis may be as high as 43%. Recen...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-15-41
更新日期:2014-05-20 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Differences in perception and potential disagreements between parents and professionals regarding the attitude for resuscitation at the limit of viability are common. This study evaluated in healthcare professionals whether the decision to resuscitate at the limit of viability (intensive care versus comfort ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章,随机对照试验
doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0413-7
更新日期:2019-10-22 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Since 2010, the European Journal of Anaesthesiology has required the reporting of five items concerning ethical approval in articles describing human research: ethics committee's name and address, chairperson's name, study's protocol number and approval date. We aimed to assess whether this requirement has h...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0289-y
更新日期:2018-06-08 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Between 2013 and 2016, West Africa experienced the largest ever outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease. In the absence of registered treatments or vaccines to control this lethal disease, the World Health Organization coordinated and supported research to expedite identification of interventions that could control ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0201-1
更新日期:2017-06-26 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The ethical principle of justice demands that resources be distributed equally and based on evidence. Guidelines regarding forgoing of CPR are unavailable and there is large variance in the reported rates of attempted CPR in in-hospital cardiac arrest. The main objective of this work was to study whether loc...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0439-x
更新日期:2019-12-26 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Large-scale linkage of international clinical datasets could lead to unique insights into disease aetiology and facilitate treatment evaluation and drug development. Hereto, multi-stakeholder consortia are currently designing several disease-specific translational research platforms to enable international h...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0359-9
更新日期:2019-03-28 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:When a new intervention or drug is developed, this has to pass through various phases of clinical testing before it achieves market approval, which can take many years. This raises an issue for drugs which could benefit terminally ill patients. These patients might set their hopes on the experimental drug bu...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-016-0145-x
更新日期:2016-10-18 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Animal models of human diseases are often used in biomedical research in place of human subjects. However, results obtained by animal models may fail to hold true for humans. One way of addressing this problem is to make animal models more similar to humans by placing human tissue into animal models, renderi...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0345-2
更新日期:2019-01-25 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:In most socialised health systems there are formal processes that manage resource scarcity and determine the allocation of funds to health services in accordance with their priority. In this analysis, part of a larger qualitative study examining the ethical issues entailed in doctors' participation as techni...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0314-1
更新日期:2018-07-24 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:In studies publishing identifying personal information, obtaining consent is regarded as necessary, as it is impossible to ensure complete anonymity. However, current journal practices around specific points to consider when obtaining consent, the contents of consent forms and how consent forms are managed h...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-14-47
更新日期:2013-11-25 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Social media and Internet technologies present several emerging and ill-explored issues for a modern healthcare workforce. One issue is patient-targeted Googling (PTG), which involves a healthcare professional using a social networking site (SNS) or publicly available search engine to find patient informatio...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0230-9
更新日期:2017-12-04 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Regardless of national contexts, the institutions responsible for research ethics, founded on international regulations, are all expected to be structured and to operate in a common way. Our experience with several countries on different continents, however, has raised questions in this regard. This article ...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0284-3
更新日期:2018-06-15 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:How should clinical ethics support services such as clinical ethics committees (CECs) be implemented and evaluated? We argue that both the CEC itself and the implementation of the CEC should be considered as 'complex interventions'. MAIN TEXT:We present a research project involving the implementation of CEC...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
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更新日期:2020-09-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Consenting for retrospective medical records-based research (MR) and leftover tissue-based research (TR) continues to be controversial. Our objective was to survey Saudis attending outpatient clinics at a tertiary care hospital on their personal preference and perceptions of norm and current practice in rela...
journal_title:BMC medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1472-6939-11-18
更新日期:2010-10-18 00:00:00