Prof. Ubaka Ogbogu advocates for practical justice in health research

Associate Professor Ubaka Ogbogu, a health law scholar in the Faculties of Law and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, has co-authored new work on bioethics and practical strategies for achieving justice in the global distribution of biotechnology research outputs.

Written with Associate Professor Lorian Hardcastle of the University of Calgary, the article, titled “Bioethics and practical justice in the post‐COVID‐19 era,” appears in the peer-reviewed journal Developing World Bioethics.

In it, Ogbogu and Hardcastle call on bioethicists to work on practical justice solutions for inequities in the distribution of the burdens and benefits of health research, especially for developing and under-resourced countries.

COVID-19 has intensified the urgency of what Ogbogu and Hardcastle term “practical justice” for health research, and the distribution of a vaccine will potentially show more disparities between poor nations and their wealthier counterparts, the authors say.

With what bioethicists are learning from the pandemic, Ogbogu and Hardcastle want to see theory and policies bridged by practical justice solutions that can be implemented in the real world.