An exploratory study to develop a practical ethical framework for reproductive health research

Research in reproductive health (RH) has been located in the core of women's health research. Providing accurate information through conducting scientific and controlled research is essential, but increased number of research in the world especially in developing countries in RH area in order to introduce advanced technologies has been resulted in much unethical, illegal and abusive research on women, which needs particular attention to ethical issues by the practitioners who are involved in RH research.

This study was conducted to develop a practical ethical framework for RH research.

45 expert academics and clinicians in various disciplines included in a three rounds Delphi study through purposeful sampling method. In round 1 Delphi data were gathered using open-ended questions by e-mail and answers were analyzed by conventional content analysis and the findings merged and validated with the results of a thorough literature review. Face and content validity index were determined in round 2 Delphi and consensuses were attained in round 3.

Emerged categories were 1) management of the research process 2) protection of participants' rights 3) third party consent 4) gender sensitive research and 5) conflict of interest.

This study has provided a practical ethical framework according to the socio-cultural context of Iran for all practitioners who are involved in research on women. Adherence to this framework may protect practitioners against unethical and illegal lawsuits and help them to respect their clients' reproductive rights.