How (& Why) to Reform US and Global Research Rules

Medical and epidemiological research has been globalized and is widely attended by new for-profit facilitators. Basic human rights principles, although themselves universal, have often been systematically ignored or marginalized in the race to exploit populations with little or no access to healthcare, and without firm plans or commitments to provide benefits to the research population. This systematic exploitation, sometimes referred to simply as "biocolonialism", will continue until we take the human rights of all peoples seriously, especially in this context the right to health, the prohibition of experimentation without informed consent, and the obligations of researchers to provide benefits to the subjects of their research. This world of research subjects is new, but research rules haven't changed for three decades. In a world where the rich get richer and the sick, sicker, the research imperative can be transformed from a tool of exploitation to an engine to promote health, but only if we develop and support structures and enforcement mechanisms that improve the chances that human rights in research take priority over money and market power.