Project description
Investigating colonial medical ethics
The history of medical tests includes dark chapters in colonial lands. Before modern rules existed, doctors conducted experiments across Southeast Asia. Power gaps in these territories blurred the line between care and force. The ERC-funded COMET project aims to study medical research in the American Philippines, British Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies from 1890 to 1962. It will examine archives to explore how doctors justified tests on unwilling subjects. The project will also study why early forms of consent appeared in some areas and explain how standards changed across different empires. The project’s goal is to shed light on how colonial history still shapes the ethics of medical research.
Objective
This project is a comparative study of human subject research in colonial Southeast Asia in the period 1890-1962. While the most (in)famous instances of medical scientists conducting unethical experiments on human beings took place in Nazi Germany and the United States, advances in medicine more broadly relied on research on non-consenting human subjects – often in colonial contexts. Doctors in the Dutch, British and American colonies in Southeast Asia too did medical experiments that discounted the well-being of their research subjects but the region also has some of the earliest examples of informed consent. This project will be the first to study these practices.
The key objective of the project is to define and explain the different ethical practices in human subject research in colonial Southeast Asia. To achieve that objective the project aims (1) to understand the nature and reveal the scope of human subject research in Southeast Asia, and (2) to conceptualize the ethical regimes in the colonies in order to explain differences between ethical decisions of doctors in diverse socio-cultural settings. To bring these issues into the present, the project also (3) examines the afterlife of colonial medicine in the postcolonial world to explore how the legacy of medical research could be used ethically today. The project’s hypothesis is that the changing context of colonial politics, research infrastructure, religious beliefs, professional (tacit) codes – what I call the ethical regime – together with local circumstances, explain these changes.
The project has a novel, anthropologically grounded approach and a three-way comparative method that includes comparisons between the Dutch East Indies, British Malaya and the (American) Philippines, and between colonies and their metropoles but also traces change over time. As such, we aspire to gain insight in why human subject research has become unethical in some circumstances and less so in others.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.