Viewpoint: Are the research ethics committees working in the best interests of participants in an increasingly globalized research environment?

Nobel laureate, Iosif Brodsky said, ‘the philosophy of the state, its ethics – are always yesterday’. More dramatically, Peter Singer quipped, ‘The science is barrelling forward, but the ethics aren’t … I don’t want the science to slow down. I want the ethics to catch up’. These comments raise the question whether research ethics committees (RECs) represent ‘yesterday’ and may not be serving the best interests of future research participants in an increasingly globalized research environment. It is a time for change in the regulation and governance of researchethics to meet the demands of ‘tomorrow’.