When anthropological investigations are brought before research ethics committees

As ethical codes, institutions, and protocols originating in the Anglo-American tradition sweep across Europe and make their way into French anthropological research, Jessica De Largy Healy and Monica Heintz ask Baptiste Moutaud and Anthony Stavrianakis, two anthropologists working in the healthcare field, about their experiences with research ethics committees around the world. Reflecting on the challenges and dilemmas faced, as well as the other ethical imperatives specific to their field of study, in close contact with both patients and medical personnel, Moutaud and Stavrianakis revisit the methodological, scientific, deontological, and legal dimensions of contemporary anthropological research more broadly. In this interview, talk turns to how the notion of knowledge-sharing between researcher and research subject is colored by conditions specific to the field of anthropology of health and medicine, while that of transparency is governed by institutional frameworks that may have the opposite effect to that intended.