Feedback on revised ethical guidelines for health and disability research

The National Ethics Advisory Committee (NEAC) sought feedback on revised ethical guidelines for health and disability research in New Zealand.

We asked for those with experience or interest in health and disability research to provide feedback about whether the revised ethical guidelines were appropriately aligned with the Ministry of Health’s new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Health and Disability Ethics Committees (HDECs).

NEAC’s guidelines at the time contained a mixture of ethical guidance in the form of policy, and process guidance. The updates were intended to:

• remove process guidance
• ensure that policy previously included in the operating procedures for HDECs was now addressed by the guidelines.

This review did not set out to fundamentally change the existing ethical standards in the guidelines, and NEAC did not seek comment on the remaining content of the guidelines.

This consultation closed on Tuesday 5 June, 2012.