Center for Clinical Bioethics

Monica Errico

Section: Visiting Scholar Program

Dr. Errico is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for Clinical Bioethics. She received her Law Degree from University of Milano Bicocca and her Doctoral Degree from the from the State University of Milano.

Dr. Errico's research project title is: "The quest for the universlity of the right of self-determination in bioethics: the case of the informed consent to pharmaceutical trials in Africa with particular reference to women's autonomy."

Aims of the Project:

• "To asses the "capability" to exercise the right of self-determination within a context of clinical trials carried out in Africa with particular reference to women's autonomy in order to understand whether, and to what extent, a universal application of the right of self-determination is necessary to prevent deprived populations from exploitation and to guarantee the protection of individual rights.
• To verify the position of Amarty Sen about the universality of human rights and to identify which elements other than culture-i.e. lack of knowledge, corruption, lack of access to medicine,-could jeopardize the very concept of self-determination as a universal principle (preferences and desire, as Sen and Nussbaum stataes, are adaptive to the social context, individuals adjust their desires to the way of life they know) in order to determine elements of best practice, as regard woman, when designing regulations legally binding and ethically acceptable in developing countries and in order to evaluate some research policies, such as the WHO Guidelines on Reproductive Health and Partner's Agreement, which allows, in some peculiar circumstances, to outweigh the usual prohibition against partner's agreement for and individual subject if failure to conduct the research would result in an inability of people in that country to receive the benefits of the drug or device. This consequence might be judged as sufficiently negative for the common good. I maintain, as regard of the partner's agreement, that the importance of knowledge should be clearly underlined in the policies about experimentation on human subjects. It has been proved that, i.e. in a context of family planning programs carried out in Ghana, the issue of the partner's agreement could be solved if debated within the group and with the NGO's support.
• To determine whether it is possible to interpret the requirement of the informed consent in the light of a different cultural context without the infringement of the right of self-determination of each potential research subject. Particularly whether it is possible that the process of the community consensus could be useful to clarify the end of the trials, to translate western concept-such as "clinical trails" or other concepts different from the traditional medicine, and to build up a relationship with traditional healers and local researchers. To determine if the process of the community consensus, instead of violating the autonomy of each potential research subject, could enhance the human capability of self-determination."