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The Swiss Human Research Act (HRA) lays the legal basis regulating research done in the health domain. As such it has important implications for anthropological research studying health and biomedicine, its institutions, practices, and experiences. One of the key issues relates to the ambiguity of medical / health anthropological research as entering (or not) in the scope of the HRA, with the subsequent necessity (or not) to apply for approval from cantonal ethical commissions. This creates tensions between institutionalized and processual ethics (Perrin et al. 2018). It raises also fundamental and practical questions for anthropology and related social sciences, and shapes interdisciplinary collaborations and dialogue.

As the Human Research Act applies to “health-related-data”, what are the different understandings at stake when defining them? What are the scope and boundaries of “health”? Is ethical approval from cantonal commissions only needed for “patients” or also for professionals? What are then the various implications between involving patients, citizen, or health professionals? In order to reflect on the challenges and issues raised by the institutional and biomedical framing of “ethics” of health research for the anthropology of health and medicine, and allied social sciences, the Commissions Ethical and Deontological Think Tank (EDTT) and Medical Anthropology Switzerland (MAS) organize a one-day workshop on March 27, 2026. It will take place at the University of Bern, Hauptgebäude, Kuppelraum, 104, 117, 217.

Organized by:
Medical Anthropology Switzerland (MAS)
& Ethical and Deontological Think Tank (EDTT)
Nolwenn Bühler, Anna Mann, Aline Sigrist

Program

Registration