Too much reliance is placed on international declarations to define what is ethical, all of which are open to interpretation contends professor Benatar. For example, it may not be right to use placebos in trials. The standard of medical practice and research in the United States, where half of all global health expenditure is spent on just 5 per cent of the world's population every year, cannot be the standard for most other countries. And concerns about abuses of research ethics have failed to be extended to deprivation as a result of poverty and other threats to freedom, he writes. And the fact remains that 90 per cent of all medical research is undertaken on diseases that account for just 10 per cent of global ill health.
Efforts are being made to bring technologies to developing countries, says the author.
Centres that provide access to on-line health information in remote areas are being established, and credible organisations are developing valuable databases. Issues such as inconsistency of health information and limited access to research from developing countries are also being addressed. The greatest challenge is getting people to use and interact with the technology, says the author.