2. What do you think the researchers should have done to ensure that informed consent was obtained?
In a collaboration, all researchers need to follow appropriate regulatory and ethical guidelines. Before the researchers embarked on the collaborative project, they should have communicated with one another on all the different aspects of the research and also worked closely with their human-research protections offices. If the appropriate institutional officials agree, then one Institutional Review Board can be designated to take the lead and will have to review and approve the research before it can begin. When the issue of international research came up, the notion of informed consent should have been addressed with the IRB.