Research Ethics: Cross cultural perspective of research ethics in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This paper was the first in a series that dealt with ethics at the Transmission of Academic Values in Asian Studies Workshop, 25?26 June 2009, Australian National University, Canberra, sponsored by the Australia?Netherlands Research Collaboration (ANRC). It is the third of a series of papers that developed from research into the health?related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with migrants from Burma1 in Thailand (Ditton & Lehane 2009a, 2009b) and emphasises the complexities of humanitarian research in chronically oppressed, disadvantaged populations. It deals with: issues encountered by researchers as they seek approval from Western ethics committees prior to conducting research; the ethical review process of ASEAN countries; the ethical involvement of interpreters in cross?cultural research; and the impact of interpreters on informed consent, data collection and analysis. The latter part of the paper contains discussion that this paper and others in its session generated, namely suggestions for improved Human Research Ethics Committees� deliberations and recommendations for good practice; educational implications and future research.