Bioethics and the Ethics of Clinical Trials Involving Nigerian Participants: Justice, Consent, and Post-Trial Obligations

This study provides a philosophical analysis of the ethics of clinical trials involving Nigerian research participants, examining the philosophical dimensions of informed consent, distributive justice in research benefit-sharing, and the post-trial obligations of pharmaceutical researchers to study populations across the South West and North East geopolitical zones. Clinical trials involving participants from low-income countries raise distinctive philosophical problems about the adequacy of consent obtained under conditions of poverty, the fairness of research designs that extract data from vulnerable populations without commensurate benefit, and the moral obligations of researchers after trials conclude. A mixed-methods philosophical design is employed, combining systematic analysis of bioethical frameworks from Ezekiel Emanuel, Solomon Benatar, and African communitarian bioethics with a qualitative study of 35 interviews involving clinical trial participants, research ethics board members, and philosophy academics in Lagos and Maiduguri. Documentary analysis of five recent Nigerian clinical trial protocols provides the case material. Findings reveal systematic philosophical inadequacies in current clinical trial ethics practice in Nigeria, including conceptually inadequate consent procedures that fail the philosophical standard of substantial autonomy, and inequitable benefit-sharing arrangements that violate Rawlsian and African communitarian justice principles. The study contributes an original African philosophical framework for clinical research ethics. Keywords: bioethics, clinical trials, informed consent, research justice, Nigeria.