Amid the surging wave of privatisation and foreign investment, a committed core of ethical practitioners and researchers continues to challenge and analyse healthcare aims and delivery. One editorial in this issue stresses the need for the Declaration of Helsinki to be open to debate and scrutiny in the interests of vulnerable participants in clinical trials. Another questions the intent behind the IMA strike and reminds the profession of its social goals.
While commending the government’s efforts at regulating clinical trials, a group of authors underscores the necessity for equipping ethics committees with equitable techniques to compute compensation for injured trial participants. Another comment examines the ethics of medical tests during the recruitment process of employees. This issue continues to focus on the medical humanities and has two articles analysing efforts to sensitise medical students through a more holistic education. Two authors focus on the arguments for and against private medical education in Sri Lanka, of relevance everywhere. Turning inward, two studies examine what healthcare professionals think of their training in HIV ethics, and of the migration of doctors from home. Finally, we would like to remind you that the Fourth National Bioethics Conference is just two months away and we look forward to meeting with you in Hyderabad.
Cover credit: YORGOS NIKAS……… Wellcome Library, London. Image title: Human egg with coronal cells