Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
 |
Claudia Emerson is upholding ethical standards in global health research, to promote sustainable societies based on inclusive, just and accountable institutions. |
Claudia Emerson, Associate Professor, Philosophy
ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GLOBAL HEALTH RESEARCH
As vaccine tests, genetic selection science and clinical drug trials move at breakneck speed to address some of the most pressing health issues facing humanity, it’s never been more important to explore all the ethical issues related to these breakthroughs.
Before the modern era of medicine, some human infection testing had been exploitive, risky and even involuntary. Accountability could easily take a back seat to expedience.
Not any more. Certainly not on Claudia Emerson’s watch.
Emerson, the director of McMaster’s Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation, is a global expert on the ethics of health research, and through her work, holds both science and government accountable.
Some of her most recent work has involved an urgent initiative to establish World Health Organization guidelines for human challenge studies – clinical trials where healthy human volunteers are given a test vaccine and then infected with the pandemic virus.
Featured Stories
‘If we go through another pandemic, we will have lessons from this one’
As the world continues to grapple with the profound losses and global shifts caused by the pandemic, an interdisciplinary project based at McMaster is looking . . .
Analysis: Apologies and promises are not enough to end TB in the North
Originally published on Policy Options In the midst of a raging global pandemic, it is easy to forget that tuberculosis (TB) is the second leading . . .
Analysis — Jesus the faithful Jew: How misreadings of the Gospel miss this and fuel anti-Judaism
This year, Easter and Passover, holidays central to Christianity and Judaism, respectively, begin on the same weekend. This timing provides an ideal opportunity to address . . .
Discover how Our Research is making an Impact
