CAPRISA ethicist authors WHO guidelines
Professor Jerome Singh, head of Ethics at CAPRISA is the principal author of the WHO guidelines titled: ‘Guidance on ethical considerations in planning and reviewing research studies on sexual and reproductive health in adolescents’, launched online by the WHO on 12 August, International Youth Day.
The guidelines stemmed from a ‘pressing need for guidance on the ethical and safety issues to consider when conducting research with adolescents’ and is designed for researchers in sexual and reproductive health who do research with adolescents. The document covers five areas and includes case scenarios and a chapter on reconciling conflicting ethical and legal obligations regarding adolescent research participants.
Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, from the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, who led the development of the document said that Singh “brought to it solid academic legal and ethical expertise and practical experience in South Africa where he is based and in other contexts. The document can be accessed at: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/adolescence/ethical-considerations-srh-research-in-adolescents/en/ Singh said: “The guidance document is based on themes identified by a diverse group of global stakeholders, and centred around typical scenarios that many investigators grapple with, globally.
The WHO document will provide useful guidance to, amongst others, researchers, research ethics committees, policymakers, and funders, and will supplement other existing global research ethics guidance documents, such as the CIOMS Guidelines and the Declaration of Helsinki.”