The SUPPORT controversy and learnings.

Over the past year, the Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial (SUPPORT) has generated yet another rich debate relating to the study of treatments that fall within the standard of care. This was triggered by the investigational intervention – the compliance-oversight determination letter (2) – by the Office for Human Research Protections of the US Department of Human and Health Services. A large number of bioethicists, researchers, members of ethics review boards, neonatologists and parents of those receiving care have contributed to this discourse.

SEARCH’s HBNC trial: towards a broader debate on the ethics of social intervention research.

The SEARCH home-based neonatal care (HBNC) trial generated a heated debate amongst health activists, researchers and demographers in India upon its publication in the Lancet in 1999. More than a decade after the Lancet article, a new debate has been sparked, this time on the ethics of the study. Against this backdrop, we identify three key questions which require in-depth discussion.