Tilburt Jon C, Kaptchuk Ted J
Department of Clinical Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
Bull World Health Organ. 2008 Aug;86(8):594-9. doi: 10.2471/blt.07.042820.
Governments, international agencies and corporations are increasingly investing in traditional herbal medicine research. Yet little literature addresses ethical challenges in this research. In this paper, we apply concepts in a comprehensive ethical framework for clinical research to international traditional herbal medicine research. We examine in detail three key, underappreciated dimensions of the ethical framework in which particularly difficult questions arise for international herbal medicine research: social value, scientific validity and favourable risk-benefit ratio. Significant challenges exist in determining shared concepts of social value, scientific validity and favourable risk-benefit ratio across international research collaborations. However, we argue that collaborative partnership, including democratic deliberation, offers the context and process by which many of the ethical challenges in international herbal medicine research can, and should be, resolved. By "cross-training" investigators, and investing in safety-monitoring infrastructure, the issues identified by this comprehensive framework can promote ethically sound international herbal medicine research that contributes to global health.
政府、国际机构和企业越来越多地投资于传统草药研究。然而，很少有文献涉及这项研究中的伦理挑战。在本文中，我们将临床研究综合伦理框架中的概念应用于国际传统草药研究。我们详细审视了该伦理框架中三个关键且未得到充分重视的维度，在这些维度中，国际草药研究出现了特别棘手的问题：社会价值、科学有效性和有利的风险效益比。在国际研究合作中确定社会价值、科学有效性和有利的风险效益比的共同概念存在重大挑战。然而，我们认为，包括民主审议在内的合作性伙伴关系提供了背景和过程，通过这些背景和过程，国际草药研究中的许多伦理挑战能够而且应该得到解决。通过对研究人员进行“交叉培训”，并投资于安全监测基础设施，这一综合框架所确定的问题能够促进符合伦理的国际草药研究，从而为全球健康做出贡献。
