Meeting on Disaster Research and Ethics

Among many ways that countries in the developing world are exploited, a recent trend has been the influx of foreign researchers to regions affected by natural disasters with the aim of carrying out various types of research on affected people.

In the light of this development, the Forum for Research and Development/Institute for Research and Development has organised a Consensus Generation Meeting on Disaster Research and Ethics on January 13 from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Independence Avenue, Colombo 7. A basic course and an advanced course in bioethics will also be conducted.

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will be the chief guest at the inauguration of the meeting. University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake, Sri Jayewardenepura University Vice Chancellor Prof. Nanda Warnasuriya, National Science Foundation Chairperson Prof. Sirimali Fernando and Acting Director of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute J. Arunasiri will be the guests of honour while experts on ethics from developing countries recently affected by disasters will participate in this crucial meeting.

Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London; Sri Lanka Foundation Institute; Bioethics Group of Aga Khan University of Pakistan; Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO, Thailand; Independent University of Bangladesh; Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia; Indian Journal of Medical Ethics; PANOS South Asia and Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT, Pakistan contribute as collaborators for this event.

The conference is funded by the Biomedical Ethics Programme of The Wellcome Trust, UK.

Invited experts from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka will participate in the meeting and will also act as resource persons for the two-bioethics courses.

One component of this meeting is a closed session on disaster research and ethics in which the group will come up with a draft of a consensus statement on behalf of all those who participated from disaster-affected developing countries.

The basic & advanced courses on bioethics will not be confined to disaster ethics. The courses are open to registered participants.

This meeting is an important milestone in disaster preparedness, as the developing world is exploited for easy and cheap research even after disasters.