Judging the Social Value of Health-Related Research: Current Debate and Open Questions

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Belmont Report—one of the foundational documents of modern research ethics—this article reviews the ethical debate about the social value of health-related research with human participants. It shows that the Belmont Report discusses the social value of research only cursorily, much like most of the research ethics literature until recently. The article then reviews the current debate and open questions about the social value of health-related research, organized around three questions: (1) is social value a necessary ethical requirement for health-related research with human participants? (2) if so, how should a social value requirement should be specified? and (3) how should such a requirement be implemented in practice?