The ethical conduct in clinical research is guided by the principle that potential harms to research participants must be proportional to anticipated benefits.

Anticipated benefits that can justify human research consist of direct benefits to the research participant, and societal benefits, also called social value.

In first-in-human research, no direct benefits are expected and the benefit component of the risks-benefit assessment thus merely exists in social value.

The concept of social value is ambiguous by nature and has been used in numerous ways. But because social value justifies involving human participants, especially in early human trials, this is problematic.

Especially for trials in HIV cure research.

COME JOIN US on Tuesday, Feb 27th at 5:30 PM as we discuss this ethical issue with our special guest Dr. Seema Shah, a bioethics researcher at Seattle Children’s who was on faculty at the NIH in the Department of Bioethics, with a joint appointment at the Division of AIDS.

We hold our meetings in the ACTU Large Conference Room, found on the 2nd floor of the West Clinic at Harborview (desk B)

Remember, we offer you free dinner + free parking passes to get you out of the View Park garage or free bus tickets to get you safely home.

You can easily RSVP for this meeting here, or by sending an email to Michael at mlouella@uw.edu