Risk and consent in biomedical research: towards a new framework

Annette works on range of issues in bioethics, including clinical ethics, research ethics, ethics in transplantation medicine, and justice in health care. For her doctoral thesis in medicine, she did experimental research in electrophysiology. Annette’s current research mostly focuses on risk and risk-benefit evaluations in biomedical research. She is particularly interested in how we should define and implement thresholds of acceptable research risk, in particular the threshold of “minimal” risk in research without informed consent (e.g., research with children). Annette’s research at the Brocher Foundation focuses on the relationship between risk and consent in research. Together with philosopher Danielle Bromwich, she will develop a novel account of consent that explains why and how the informed consent process should be attentive to the level of risk posed by a study.