The Draft National Health Research Policy (NHRP), 2026, marks significant progress in re-organising India’s fragmented health research ecosystem. This commentary first commends four features that respond to existing gaps in the research ecosystem — its interdisciplinary approach, built-in transparency provisions, revision of the research assessment framework, and the requirement of informed consent for computational data use. The commentary then recommends improving the policy by increasing participation of the states, naming bodies responsible for listed functions, strengthening benefit-sharing provisions, and anchoring consent procedures within the framework of supported decision-making. Lastly, two areas require further deliberation: revising the research domains to better reflect the envisaged research priorities, and explicitly recognising persons with disabilities both as researchers and research participants. The momentum set by the Draft NHRP must be sustained by timely finalisation of the Policy after accommodating public comments, and early establishment of the named bodies.
The simulation of the deceased through AI-based griefbots, avatars and data-driven memory tools has opened a new frontier at the intersection of technology and bioethics. This commentary examines the ethical implications of digital immortality — the replication of aspects of a person’s identity beyond death — with particular attention to autonomy, narrative authorship and the integrity of grief. Drawing on philosophical traditions, clinical models of mourning and recent critiques from cyberthanatology, it analyses six ethical domains through a structured reasoning approach. It argues that ethical remembrance should prioritise dignity over digital continuity and calls for anticipatory consent mechanisms, clearer safeguards for AI-based mourning tools and greater interdisciplinary engagement with cyberthanatology. Ultimately, it advocates a renewed commitment to death ethics in the digital age, grounded in the principle that “authenticity cannot be uploaded and dignity cannot be downloaded”.
