What Constitutes "Benefit" to Subjects in International Research in Developing Countries?

In order for ethic boards or Institutional Review Boards to approve research with human subjects both ethics and law require that the potential benefits of the research outweigh the risks and discomforts to the research subjects. If research is performed on one population but the benefit can only accrue to a different population it has been argued that this will constitute exploitation of the research subjects. A number of suggestions have been put forth to describe possible benefits to the population of research subjects. They include the providing of research subjects with medical care that they might not otherwise have received, leaving behind medical supplies or facilities when the researchers leave that the research subject population would not otherwise have had access to, provision of the research articles to the research subjects after the research is concluded, and provision of the research article to the entire population that was at risk for becoming research subjects. This presentation will explore the different notions of "benefit" to determine when researchers from wealthy countries may legitimately conduct research in under resourced countries.