Climate change has a significant impact on human health. Research in this area is crucial for developing effective methods to reduce its effects. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) play a crucial role in detecting potential gaps, mapping out patterns of consequences on vulnerable populations, health systems, and emphasising gaps in climate and health/biomedical research in specific geographic areas. In addition, IRBs are responsible for making decisions on the study’s adherence to the (bio)ethical principles of data privacy and confidentiality, equality and diversity, inclusivity, and respect for research participants' dignity.
This editorial introduces a special issue of the Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics based on the 2024 conference Humans and Other Animals: Rattling the Paradigm, hosted by the University of South Africa. Bringing together emerging scholars from across the Global South, the event explored human–animal relationships through philosophical, social, and artistic perspectives. The six articles in this issue present diverse approaches to animal ethics, emphasizing dialogue and collaboration across cultures and disciplines.
Good care is the reflection of care ethics. To improve the quality of care, moral behavior is needed in addition to law and regulation. Personal involvement and motivation of care are important elements of good care. Thus, health care provider must change their perspective. Their education on medical ethics needs to be more practically oriented rather than theoretical. In addition, ethical reflection is a contextual and experiential learning process. Bioethics training is required in order to foster, inter alia, the moral power of imagination of care providers. This issue of the Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics is designated with articles on ethics in patient care
This study delves into how social media is revolutionizing animal welfare efforts in Dhaka, Bangladesh, focusing on both community-driven initiatives and legal advocacy. Using qualitative methods such as digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews, the study examines how online platforms are transforming individual acts of animal rescue into broader, organized movements. Theoretical insights from Benedict Anderson’s "Imagined Communities" and Erving Goffman’s Framing Theory shed light on how digital spaces create collective identities and influence public attitudes. By 2024, local animal welfare groups had evolved from merely rescuing and adopting animals to actively engaging in legal battles and policy advocacy. The study highlights how social media not only builds strong support networks and raises awareness but also empowers new activists by keeping them engaged in awareness related activities, bringing justice to animals, and staying connected among themselves for a common cause. The study also enhances the understanding of how digital platforms can drive meaningful social change and offers a framework for applying similar strategies to other advocacy efforts.
In this article, I use a critical animal studies (CAS) lens to examine what it means to create and view photographs of roadside zoo animals. As a photographer and CAS researcher, I am particularly interested in situations where animal suffering is clearly visible, yet ignored, or perhaps framed as something else, such as entertainment. Since roadside zoos are legally sanctioned, open to the public, and encourage visitors to take pictures, they can be a powerful tool to reframe what it means to look at animal suffering. Roadside zoos are typically privately owned, unaccredited menageries charging an admission fee. They exist in every state in the USA, and they are legal. Through my photography, I hope to picture captive animals as individuals, and create photographs that empathetically call attention to the animal's boredom, frustration, and suffering through confinement. In this article, I discuss my “Roadside Zoo” photography series that I created while working on my dissertation (2025). Specifically I analyze the ethics of looking at and photographing roadside zoo animals from a CAS perspective. This includes an examination of issues of power, representation, perception, and empathy for both the photographer and the viewer. I conclude with a discussion of an artistic intervention that I made to these photographs, and examine how these altered visuals might allow us to better “see” the impact of incarceration on these zoo animals.
