A recent report by Human Rights Watch has raised questions regarding the ethicality of a Chinese scholarly article. Authors of the article in question, "A Memory Retrieval-Extinction Procedure to Prevent Drug Craving and Relapse," say that the study participants were consensual and that the study had been approved by the Human Investigation Committee of the Peking University Health Center.
However, Rights Watch claims that the study participants may not have had a choice in taking part in the research. The subjects were being treated at two state-run compulsory treatment centers that "historically housed people detained without due process," said the organization.
"Since 2005, Human Rights Watch has conducted a series of investigations into access to HIV prevention and treatment for intravenous drug use in China, as well as conditions in compulsory drug detention centers. We and others have found a wide range of severe human rights abuses in so-called drug treatment or rehabilitation centers, in violation of international human rights law," HRW noted.
One of the study's authors, in a response to HRW, said there was "no indication" of the abuses alleged by HRW.
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