Research Bioethics in the Ugandan Context: A Program Summary

Abstract

...We report on the proceedings of a five-day symposium on bioethical principles governing clinical trials, which convened in Jinja, Uganda in September 1994. The thirteen male and female workshop participants included representatives from the Uganda Ministry of Health, Makerere University, the Uganda AIDS Commission, Uganda's National Council of Science and Technology, and the National Chemotherapeutic Laboratory. These representatives included ethicists, physicians, researchers, and pharmacists, all of whom have conducted research themselves. Initial workshop sessions focused on the history of human experimentation and the development of protections for human participants in medical research, both in the United States and internationally. The workshop was intended as a first step toward examining Uganda's present system of bioethical review; the applicability of the principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice to biomedical research in Uganda; and strategies for further development of a Ugandan code of research bioethics. Participants concluded that although these principles are relevant to research in Uganda, their adoption and implementation must reflect the circumstances and cultural context that are unique to Uganda.