This interesting book looks at how we think about personal relationships in health research where the researcher is from an affluent country and the participant is from a developing country. There are ethical challenges here that warrant careful reflection and considered action. Our ethical guidance in this area needs to provide practical advice. Helicopter research and ethical dumping is never acceptable.
How can we best categorize the relationship between researcher and participant? One is paid; the other is not, yet is not a customer or receiving a service. One seems more powerful, yet cannot function without the other; he or she cannot proceed in the relationship without the other’s explicit consent. They are not friends, yet often share intimate details – albeit one-sided – about their lives. Their relationship is at once highly technical and sometimes deeply human. Furthermore, it is one which, while at first glance – in the moment of drawing blood or obtaining consent – seems to be a relationship between two individuals, in reality stands for relationships between whole populations, countries, governments and institutions.
Aellah G, Chantler T, Geissler PW. Global Health Research in an Unequal World: Ethics Case Studies from Africa. Oxfordshire (UK): CAB International; 2016. RESEARCHER-PARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIPS. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458758/
