Abstract

FERRARI LIMA, Dartel; ANGUERA LIMA, Lohran; MALACARNE, Vilmar  and  CRISTOFOLETTI, João Fernando. The place of the social control representative in Brazilian research ethics committees. Rev. Bioética y Derecho [online]. 2021, n.52, pp.253-264.  Epub Oct 25, 2021. ISSN 1886-5887.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1344/rbd2021.52.32048.

The requirement for Research Ethics Committees in Brazil to have community representatives among their members is both explicit and undefined. Explicit because Brazilian law requires such participation; undefined, because the current regulations do not establish the competencies of the participant, but only constitute it as a representative arm of social control within the system that regulates ethical conduct in human research. This paper aims to reflexively analyze the challenges of including community representatives (social control) in research ethics committees. The study intends to show who these social control representatives are and, at the same time, opens ways to reflect on this participation. There is an undisclosed expectation that public participation in the work of committees will be favored by the imposition of rules. However, imposition alone may not be sufficient to meet the law's expectations. It concludes with the need to add permanent training to this representation, in order to mediate the permanence and active participation of social control in ethics committees.

Keywords : Research ethics; ethics committee; participant performs research; social control; community representative.

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