Noelia Martínez Doallo

Several pitfalls hinder the advance of biomedical research involving human subjects, namely: the mistrust of some societal sectors, certain ethically questionable interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and restrictive legal regulations that impede the participation of entire human collectives, as children or the disabled.
Yet, the performance of biomedical research ideally aims to improve the life quality of the society as a whole, a potential that has been wasted. For the latter reason, some authors have argued the existence of a moral duty to participate in biomedical research, as a mean to do our fair share within the community. However, it is unclear that everybody effectively benefits and shares the risks of this activity to the same extent.
Today more than ever, to foster —and, in the best case scenario, attain— a healthy and secure society makes necessary to agree upon some fundamental cornerstones regarding social justice and burden sharing. This implies to look into and assess the different responses provided to the issue of mandatory participation in biomedical research, in order to strike a fair balance between the aforesaid scientific activity and human flourishing. The ultimate aim of this project is to resort to theories of justice for offering a feasible proposal to accomplish such a lofty goal.