Ethics In Biological Anthropology
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Introduction
Ethics refers to a system of moral principles, precepts, maxims, or observations that define the understanding of a professional society regarding structures, obligations, and responsibilities of a given organization and its members (Turner, Jennifer, and Graciela, 2013). For a professional, ethics limits or regulates their professional life. Ethical codes are, in most cases, spelt out in a code of conduct or a code of ethics. Like any other field, physical anthropology is faced with several ethical issues and challenges; therefore, this paper investigates the strictures that define how members of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) deal with ethical decisions within their professional lives. The continuous ethical challenges facing biological anthropologists and the extent to which the professionals in this field of study have demonstrated their literacy, engagement, and practice of ethics. A literature review approach was adopted for this study.
The AAPA Code of Ethics
The code of Ethics for the AAPA was established in 2003 from a published series of positional statements preceding a series of misconduct allegations by the practitioners. According to MacKinnon and Erin (2010), the AAPA previously drew their ethics code from other national, legal-related entities. Currently, the association has an established ethics standing committee responsible for fast-tracking the changes in by-laws and helping reduce the complexities involved in the review process (Turner, Jennifer, and Graciela, 2013).
Ongoing Ethical Issues in Biological Anthropology
Principle of consent
Since the study of biological anthropology is concerned with issues of the human population, the human genome, the relationships among groups of people, issues of informed consent arise in most cases. Lindee and Ricardo (2012) document one such case; the IBP program between 1964 to 1974 concerning human adaptability; the populations in the Arctic, Kenya, Western Samoa, among other jurisdictions, were selected for the research. However, Neel’s six principles were not implemented appropriately. For instance, in one study that constituted 11 participants belonging to one indigenous group, the participants confirmed the lack of consent or discussion in the study planning stages (Turner, Jennifer, and Graciela, 2013).
With the advent of technology, researchers can make comparisons among DNS sequences among groups in order to formulate relationships among populations. Many of the obtained DNA samples are stored for more extended periods. Such scenarios raise questions if such samples would be used years later when the original persons who provided consent are already dead; who will provide consent? Another worrying trend is the inconsistencies and mutative nature of biospecimens research and data used for secondary studies (Federal Register, 2013).
Turner (2012) illustrates the concerns of the meaning of consent over time concerning the community, individuals, and samples; the researcher documents the case of the Yanomami peoples of Brazil and Venezuela. They provided samples between 1960 and 1970 for medical research expecting more significant medical benefits for their community. However, the blood samples were kept for long, and other studies besides the original purpose were also performed. The community culture stipulates that a person’s property be destroyed upon the demise of the person and not kept as the U.S based laboratory acted. Even though the samples were returned for burial after years of negotiation, the community did not get the benefits they expected, and the community was never informed about such extended storage raising issues of consent (Fishman and Michelle, 2014)
Principle of Justice
The principle of justice goes beyond human life and encompass the work done on living primate and human remains and fossils (Collaway, 2016). Ethical dilemmas here include; the authority with the responsibility to speak for the ancient human remains, the authority to determine the actions to be done on the human remains including enabling reburial, allowing scientific research, allow public display among other decisions. Other dilemmas include the ownership of the fossils; the county of origin or the researcher’s country; the authority that determines the level of access to the human remains or fossils. A group of 20 countries including the USA and Ethiopia taking part in a study of human palaeontology in 1998 came up with resolution discouraging public display of hominid fossils and any relocation of such material from their country of origin should be justified by compelling scientific reasons (Bushwick, 2011).
The case of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) is considerably controversial; for instance, Lucy is considered irreplaceable, fragile and should not be replicated. The ethical dilemmas here are, weighing the risks and benefits of travel, contemplating about the need to leverage 3D printing to replicate the material for research ad educational purposes, the desires to let the country of origin benefit economically from the material display or sharing the multi-million-year-old legacy of Luy with the world. In this regard, Collaway (2016) posits that weighing the benefits and risks pertaining ethical dilemmas in anthropological research is complex, and therefore must be viewed in recognition of sociopolitical histories, aspects of marginalization and exploitation of people, the global economic impacts on the home country’s ability to carry out anthropological training, conduct research as well as its ability to maintain specimens for posterity.
Ethical Literacy and Ethical Engagements in Anthropology
According to Wagner (2017), biological anthropology ethical literacy is based on three primary competencies, including reasoning, sensitivity and imagination. Ethen though the modern-day biological anthropologist has more resources to help them resolve ethical issues in their practice, profession, research and teaching responsibilities and the fact that AAPA has a fully constituted ethics committee which avails useful materials and resources about ethics to its members. There is steel need to reevaluate the hanging circumstances within th practice baked on the discussed ethical dilemmas, including data access as well as informed consent. Therefore, in order to promote trust in scientific research, researchers must now, more than before, engage with the persons or communities of interest to renew their consent os any subsequent research activity for new projects involving previously collected data (August, McGowan and Fishman, 2017). Further, the researcher can also include advocacy as part of their mandate with the critical element being participation and partnership with the persons of interest in a search project. In the age of technology, researchers should also ensure to reject disingenuous informed consent and embrace novel strategies like dynamic and open consent that focus on creating trust through participant-centred models to informed consent and research projects (Doerr et al., 2016)
In regard to data access and collaboration, Prainsack (2015) posits that there are a variety of checks that ensure data is appropriately used. For instance, there is a requirement for any research entity to avail a data management plan before consent is acquired detailing hoe the primary data, as well as the results, will be availed to the stakeholders. Sponsors and funding agency also require clearance from controlling bodies like IACUC or IRBs before research funding is released. Governement or states where the hominid originates may also require to provide mandate a negotiated agreement between parties about, consent and material transfer for samples or other heritage materials considered relevant for the research before research work is commenced. This is a clear shift towards a more informed, formal and legalized approach to projects to ensure the protection of the rights of the country of origin (Doerr et al., 2016).
Despite all these gains, the biological, anthropological field still requires improvements, especially issues pertaining to discrimination, sexual harassments (Clancy, 2014). Researchers should ensure to conform to the AAPA codes and the professional codes of ethics pertaining to these issues. For instance, teachers should ensure to avoid discriminations, foster fairness, train students on ethics, acknowledge the work of trainees students and avoid sexual liaisons both in the field and the institutions (Balter, 2016). Therefore, there is a need to further extend the ongoing discussions of ethics to all the aspects within anthropology. Such engagement can be done in symposia, workshops, round table meetings, open fora, among other platforms. These engagements will always ensure a continuous examination of ethical issues within the discipline of biological anthropology, and therefore being ready to handle new ethical dilemmas as a result of emerging issues or technologies.
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