Re-imagining the "subject:" Conceptual and ethical considerations on the participant in qualitative research

Abstract

The conventional biomedical concept of the "human subject" is out of step with World Health Organization's (WHO) holistic definition of health. The "human subject" in international and national research-ethics policies is a highly individualistic, autonomous person, in contrast to WHO's holistic definition of the healthy person. Qualitative research, this paper suggests, offers a way out of this conundrum. We need to reconceptualize the human "subject" in line with WHO's holistic definition of health. The paper offers concepts of "research participants" derived from qualitative research as an essential way to reconceptualize the human "subject." Moreover, field work, or ethnographic research, as undertaken by qualitative researchers presents a useful way of gaining a fuller understanding of issues of health in a given population.