When research entails living beings, ethical considerations are paramount. As research is always a result of careful planning, the process must include consideration of the ethical dimension as much as the scientific merit of the project. The contemporary concept of health includes physical as well as social and spiritual dimensions. Therefore the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) hosted a workshop on ethics in biomedical and social science research on February 12, 1999, in Mumbai, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), USA and International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai