Most of the people reading this will be related to health care in some way. Thus they will be familiar with the ethical code that governs health care practice and research. This ‘moral philosophy’ [1] has far reaching influences. As a medical student, I am encouraged to speak to my colleges about controversial ethical topics and find there is a high level of knowledge and interest about difficult issues. Even if we do not resolve these problems;

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”

(Joubert)[2]

This high level of awareness guards us all against unethical acts taking place. This allows the patients or subjects of research as well as the health professionals to be protected against what could be considered human rights abuses.

Sadly this is not the same the world over. In fact, Western pharmaceutical companies, who are governed by the same ethical code of conduct, can sometimes act unethically when conducting research. In some situations they have used drugs on human subjects that haven’t been fully tested. [3] The ‘Dying for Drugs’ documentary showed antibiotics from a large pharmaceutical company being used to treat meningitis, without full clinical trials, or proper ethical procedures being followed. This had two consequences. Those involved in the trial didn’t receive what was considered the best treatment at that time. They were also exposed to a side effect profile that had not been documented and some are still suffering the side effects today. In a developed country this would be unacceptable, but the groups of people who they exploited are particularly vulnerable and live in developing countries, where there exist few mechanisms for accountability.

As a future health professional I would like to think that all my actions are ethical. Yet the more I think about the doughnuts I have eaten, or pens I have taken from drug reps I start to wonder about how easy it is to avoid conflicts of interest [4]. The drug companies themselves are not ‘bad’, they just have vested interests. In order to act ethically when working with drug companies it is important to consider all those who have a stake in the drugs and think about how your actions may affect all those you treat[5] .

It is not the intent of this article to point fingers or cast blame at individuals. It is the system that research takes place in which facilitates these human rights abuses. My aim is to get people to apply the same rigorous standards with which we are so familiar, to research in developing countries where ethics regulations and monitoring may be not be as stringent and put individuals in positions where they could be victims of this system.

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