Ethics in research with vulnerable human subjects: a review study

Vulnerable individuals often do not have their rights guaranteed when they are recruited or not to researches. This review aims to analyze the knowledge produced in studies on ethics in research with vulnerable populations to contribute to greater protection and justice for this population. A search for articles in the PubMed and VHL databases was carried out using the mesh database terms "Ethics, research" AND "Vulnerable populations" over the past ten years. A total of 240 studies were found, of which 104 were duplicates. After reading the titles, abstracts and full texts, 33 articles were selected for thematic content analysis. Three main themes emerged: vulnerability x justice; coercion/exploitation/ethics dumping; and challenges/barriers to ensuring ethics in research. It was concluded that in order to conduct ethical research with vulnerable populations, ensuring due protection and opportunity to participate in studies that benefit them, it is necessary to: improve international ethical standards regarding vulnerable populations; take into account the particularities of subjects as well as the context in which they find themselves; ensure access to the best treatment available in clinical trials; and use specific and individualized strategies to minimize their vulnerabilities.