Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, McGill University, 3487 Peel Street, 2nd floor, Montréal H3A 1W7, Canada.
Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2013 Feb 7;9(1):5. doi: 10.1186/1710-1492-9-5.
While a growing body of research is uncovering the aetiology and effective treatments for allergy, research that assess the broader ethical implications of this disease is lacking significantly. This article will demonstrate both the paucity of academic research concerning ethical implications in allergy and explain why ethical analysis is integral to formulating effective health strategies for allergic disease. An exhaustive literature search of publications in French and English identified less than 35 academic articles focussed on the topic of ethics and allergy; this is a miniscule number when compared to the amount of articles published on ethical issues related to other chronic illnesses, such as obesity. It is important to demonstrate to allergy specialists the need for, and utility of, further incorporating ethical analyses in allergology; the current success of Ethical, Legal, Social Implications (ELSI) research programmes in human genetics and nanotechnology will serve as notable examples. Indeed, future research and innovation in allergy will undoubtedly encounter ethical dilemmas and the allergology community should play a significant role in helping to address these issues. However, incorporating ethical analyses in allergology does not imply that the allergology community must acquire extensive knowledge in bioethics; instead, interdisciplinary research that incorporates expertise from allergology and bioethics would enable allergy specialists to advance critical knowledge development in this largely overlooked domain of study.
尽管越来越多的研究揭示了过敏的病因和有效治疗方法，但对这种疾病更广泛的伦理影响的研究却明显缺乏。本文将展示过敏领域的学术研究在伦理方面的匮乏，并解释为什么伦理分析对于制定过敏疾病的有效健康策略至关重要。对法语和英语出版物进行了全面的文献检索，仅发现不到 35 篇专门探讨伦理和过敏问题的学术文章；与其他慢性疾病（如肥胖症）相关的伦理问题相比，这一数字微不足道。向过敏专家展示进一步将伦理分析纳入过敏学的必要性和实用性非常重要；人类遗传学和纳米技术中当前成功的伦理、法律和社会影响（ELSI）研究计划将成为显著的例子。事实上，过敏学的未来研究和创新无疑将遇到伦理困境，过敏学界应该在帮助解决这些问题方面发挥重要作用。然而，将伦理分析纳入过敏学并不意味着过敏学界必须掌握广泛的生物伦理学知识；相反，从过敏学和生物伦理学中汲取专业知识的跨学科研究将使过敏专家能够在这个被忽视的研究领域中推进关键知识的发展。
