Ethical Considerations in Disaster Evaluation Studies

Abstract

It is only within the recent past that bioethicists and legal scholars have begun to address the highly complex domain of ethical and legal issues related to the conduct of research in the context of disaster conditions. Since the year 2000, several national and international committees and organizations have developed guidelines for the ethical conduct of research under disaster conditions. These guidelines focus upon three unique characteristics of the disaster situation that researchers must consider: (1) the unique vulnerability of disaster victims; (2) the complications related to obtaining ‘ethics review’ during and immediately after a disaster impact; and (3) threats to research team members, victims and rescue workers during the data collection period. Suggestions for managing these threats and their associated risks are offered in this chapter. The framework and suggestions are drawn from reviews prepared by the World Health Organization and by a team of bioethics and legal scholars who have carefully reviewed and summarized the relevant national and international guideline statements.