Reimagining research ethics to include environmental sustainability: a principled approach, including a case study of data-driven health research

Journal article

Six planetary boundaries have already been exceeded, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, chemical pollution, and land-system change. The health research sector contributes to the environmental crisis we are facing, though to a lesser extent than healthcare or agriculture sectors. It could take steps to reduce its environmental impact but generally has not done so, even as the planetary emergency worsens. So far, the normative case for why the health research sector should rectify that failure has not been made. This paper argues strong philosophical grounds, derived from theories of health and social justice, exist to support the claim that the sector has a duty to avoid or minimise causing or contributing to ecological harms that threaten human health or worsen health inequity. The paper next develops ideas about the duty’s content, explaining why it should entail more than reducing carbon emissions, and considers what limits might be placed on the duty

Authors: Samuel, G; Richie, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Journal: Journal of Medical Ethics
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 428-433
• Publication date: 2022-08-03
• Acceptance date: 2022-07-23
• DOI: 10.1136/jme-2022-108489
• EISSN: 1473-4257
• ISSN: 0306-6800
• Language: English
• Keywords: Political science; Philosophy; Ecology; Data science; Computer science; Research ethics; Biology; Engineering; Environmental ethics; Engineering ethics; Sustainability