Relevance? of principlism for the ethics of regional biomedical research in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic constitutes a challenge for humanity. This has become an exceptional catalyst in the debates around the ethics of biomedical research that needs to go with the scientific-investigative processes, indispensable today, in the search for solutions to the state of epidemiological catastrophe experienced by humanity. For the countries of Our America, these debates acquire the greatest relevance/specificity, since on many occasions, less global and authentic emergencies have led to the implementation of international, unilateral, and abusive biomedical research. It is in this context that it is surprising that the Pan American Health Organization has issued a regulatory instrument as Guidance for the ethical supervision of COVID-19 research in the face of the generation of new evidence (2020), which is profoundly principlist. The objective of this article is: to analyze the relevance? of principlism for the ethics of regional biomedical research in times of the current pandemic. Above the recognition of the value that for this field and context they have: the protection of social vulnerability, the opposition to a double ethical standard to evaluate the moral validity of controlled clinical trials, the moral responsibility of the sponsors towards the research subjects a once the study is concluded, and the centrality of solidarity for research with foreign “cooperation”; four precepts, not in vain, already identified in CIOMS-WHO Guidelines (2002).