Members of the Case Western Reserve University community are invited to join the School of Law for a talk titled “Equal Rights and Protections in Human Subjects Research—A Call to Action” Monday, Oct. 14, at noon in the Moot Courtroom (Gund Hall, Room A59).
Leslie E. Wolf, the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Chair in Law, Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State University’s College of Law, will give this talk.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a stark reminder of the critical role of biomedical research in saving human lives. But it also highlighted an urgent need for research that expands the evidence base in ways that reduce health disparities and promote equity. But the inclusive research needed to achieve these goals may be hampered by the fact any efforts to achieve these goals are embedded in a system that treats research participants unequally. The federal regulations governing human subject research do not apply to all research, leaving some participants unprotected. In addition, because of variation in state laws, participants in the same study may have different rights and protections. Congress has the power to provide additional procedural and substantive research protections that would uniformly apply to all participants. Wolf will provide some recommendations for changes Congress should consider.