Towards local participation in the creation of ethical research guidelines

Research ethics committees are entrusted with implementing guidelines to protect both scientists and human subjects of research from harm. These guidelines are often based on western contexts and may not resonate with the local moral traditions of the communities that they seek to protect. In this essay, we discuss how using principles of deliberative democracy with a "local derivation" approach may help in the drafting and implementation of ethical guidelines for research that better serve society.