Against the use and publication of contemporary unethical research: the case of Chinese transplant research

Abstract

<jats:p>Recent calls for retraction of a large body of Chinese transplant research and of Dr Jiankui He’s gene editing research has led to renewed interest in the question of publication, retraction and use of unethical biomedical research. In Part 1 of this paper, we briefly review the now well-established consequentialist and deontological arguments for and against the use of unethical research. We argue that, while there are potentially compelling justifications for use under some circumstances, these justifications fail when unethical practices are ongoing—as in the case of research involving transplantations in which organs have been procured unethically from executed prisoners. Use of such research displays a lack of respect and concern for the victims and undermines efforts to deter unethical practices. Such use also creates moral taint and renders those who use the research complicit in continuing harm. In Part 2, we distinguish three dimensions of ‘non-use’ of unethical research: non-use of published unethical research, non-publication, and retraction and argue that all three types of non-use should be upheld in the case of Chinese transplant research. Publishers have responsibilities to not publish contemporary unethical biomedical research, and where this has occurred, to retract publications. Failure to retract the papers implicitly condones the research, while uptake of the research through citations rewards researchers and ongoing circulation of the data in the literature facilitates subsequent use by researchers, policymakers and clinicians.</jats:p>

Applying safeguards of research integrity to unethical organ donation and transplantation

“…Agreeing with Higgins' et al, 1 research misconduct investigations pertaining to unethical organ donation and transplant data can be performed by the researcher's host institution. However, national research integrity agencies often also provide these investigative services and they do so with less conflict of interest because they lack the shared institutional affiliation with the researcher.…”

“…Katrina A Bramstedt 1,2 Higgins' et al recent paper 1 presents a well-thought ethical analysis of the problems associated with the publication of unethical transplant research. More generally, research ethics committees never allow the use or reuse of data that has been collected without their required approval.…”

“…Higgins et al did well to draw similarities between the dilemma of Holocaust medical experimentation data to that of unethical transplant research data. 1…”

The ‘Ethical’ COVID-19 Vaccine is the One that Preserves Lives: Religious and Moral Beliefs on the COVID-19 Vaccine

“…We agree that such data ought to be handled with care to avoid the risk of ‘being contaminated by the moral taint’ ( Higgins et al ., 2020 )—for example by acknowledging the harm caused to the victims of such experiments whenever unethical research is cited ( Moe, 1984 , Higgins et al ., 2020 ). However, current research guidelines do permit the use of such data for research purposes, including their reference in scientific papers, if significant benefit can result from such research; if the unethical nature of the original research is properly acknowledged; and if compelling ethical reasons can be provided for its use.…”

COVID-19 and transplant research from China: An ethical dilemma

“…In addition, such publication makes those who use the results of that research morally complicit by becoming entangled in the underlying ethical breaches. 5 We assume that the JHLT valued the information in this paper to the extent that they felt it outweighed the harms of publication. Recognizing the tension, the Editor agreed to include a note about the ethical breach, as follows:…”