Developing World Bioethics最新文献

Lack of transparency in healthcare systems is a critical challenge that undermines accountability, fuels corruption, and erodes public trust. While transparency has been shown to generate multiple positive outcomes, the Iranian healthcare system continues to suffer from significant deficits in this area. To investigate this issue, a qualitative approach was employed, which involved conducting 35 in-depth interviews with experts and social activists engaged in healthcare system transparency at all levels, recruited through purposive stratified sampling method. This was followed by a thematic analysis aimed at exploring the causes and consequences of the phenomenon. The results indicated that the causes of the lack of transparency in the Iranian healthcare system can be categorized into four main domains: sociopolitical, psychological and behavioral, organizational, and ethical and legal factors. Additionally, the consequences of the lack of transparency can be classified into three primary categories: ethical, organizational, and social factors. The findings of this study provide needed data to enhance transparency and cultivate a culture of openness and accountability in the Iranian healthcare system and other similar contexts.

Research integrity remains a challenge to public trust in science around the world. Retracted scientific papers can erode the public's trust by raising doubt about the reliability of the published literature. This paper assesses article retractions involving Mexican authors through analysis of relevant data and retraction patterns. The study examines 55 retracted articles with Mexican corresponding authors, categorizing them by publication venue, article type, scientific area, reasons for retraction, and time between publication and retraction. The findings underscore core challenges to research integrity in Mexico and the need to strengthen both research training and research integrity initiatives in Mexican research institutions. The paper concludes with recommendations for contextually relevant strategies for Mexican academia to foster research integrity.

This article analyzes the interplay between Ubuntu's philosophy: "I am, because we are; and because we are, therefore I am" with the expression "We are all in this together," which resounded mostly in North America and Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article argues that the expression "We are all in this together" directly or indirectly adopted Ubuntu's philosophy of relational solidarity in handling and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The expression implicitly acknowledges that pandemics can be mitigated through collaboration, shared responsibility, and relational solidarity.

There is an ongoing debate on how to balance the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), especially in healthcare. In resource-constrained settings, such as Africa, where access to quality care remains a challenge, AI has the potential to improve efficiency, accessibility, and patient outcomes. Yet, its development and deployment raise complex ethical, legal, ecological, and socioeconomic concerns. To ensure context-sensitive solutions, this paper introduces Ubuntu, a traditional African ethical philosophy, as a guiding framework for AI in African healthcare. Ubuntu offers a people-centered alternative to dominant Western-centric models, providing a culturally grounded lens for interpreting justice-related principles in line with Africa's unique needs and realities. Drawing on Ubuntu's five core values of communalism, interdependence, humanism, sharing, and compassion, we analyze how these principles can ethically guide AI across three normative pillars: justice and fairness, solidarity, and sustainability. For each, we identify risks and offer concrete, culturally resonant strategies to address them. In doing so, we undertake a distinctive scholarly contribution that meaningfully enriches the emerging discourse on decolonizing AI by reframing Ubuntu not only as a moral compass but also as a strategic tool for structural reform and innovation.

This article explores two complementary strategies for addressing the affordability and access challenges facing advanced therapies. As high development costs and limited market access have led to the withdrawal of several therapies, the article examines how these barriers create 'valleys of death' that prevent innovation from reaching patients. Through the case of Glybera and other examples, it outlines a rehabilitative approach focused on reforming current systems through improved reimbursement schemes, regulatory streamlining, and more efficient manufacturing. It also presents a transformative approach that embeds affordability and access from the beginning of the research and development process, encouraging local innovation, equitable intellectual property practices, and adaptive regulatory frameworks. Lessons from the COVID-19 vaccine experience demonstrate the real-world potential of these strategies to ensure that promising therapies are not only developed, but also equitably delivered worldwide.