Indian Journal of Medical Ethics annd Trustee, Anusandhan Trust
Experiments on humans - individuals in biomedical research and clusters of them in public health research - have been advanced as the only definitive method for generating evidence for changing practices and policies. For last one decade there has been a phenomenal increase in the product development commercial biomedical and population based public health health research in India. Such an approach is trying to elevate randomised controlled trial to the only only genuine method of producing evidence at the expense of all other social research methods in health, and at the same time it is unable to provide real protection against the harm caused to humans by such experiments. The presentation will do mapping of such research and discuss the inadequacy of the present ethical and legal (regulatory) framework.