Ethical Reflection On Epidemiological Research In China

With the development of the epidemiological research, some ethical issues have not gotten the deserved attention, such as informed consent, exemption of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, permission from the community, partnership between researcher and community, the CABs, and so on. Based on the differences between epidemiological research and clinical research, this paper systematically discusses the ethical issues, ethical principles and suggestions on epidemiological research in China, This paper aims to arouse more attention to ethical issues and to promote its standardization in epidemiological research, and the development of norms of conduct in it..In the first chapter, the paper introduces the history, the characteristics and the concept of the epidemiology. It reviews the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital Study, Willowbrook Study, and introduces the history of the ethical discussion in epidemiology, though introducing the status quo and existing problems in epidemiological research in China to demonstrate the necessity of addressing ethical issues in it. In the second chapter, the paper discusses the ethical issues on epidemiological research in China, such as informed consent, exempt from informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, permission from the community, partnership between researcher and community, the role of CABs, and so on. In the third chapter, the author points out the ethical principles in epidemiological research, such as principle of utility, Principle of respect, principle of justice. In the end, it provides some suggestions on epidemiological research in China:implement ethical guidance on epidemiological research; establish the CABs; strengthen ethics training; improve the ethical awareness of researchers and ethical decision-making capacity; and strengthen the study in ethical issues in epidemiological research.