Risks, authorizations, and pending issues: a reflection on the CEP-CONEP system from the perspective of the anthropology of health

Abstract

 In this article, we reflect on the practices and normative conceptions established by the CEP-CONEP system, which have resulted in obstacles for research in the Human and Social Sciences (HSS), although these, for the most part, do not pose risks to the physical, psychological, or social integrity of the participants. These impediments have elicited reactions from researchers in these fields, particularly those in the anthropology of health, culminating in 2016 with the definition of a specific CONEP resolution for research in this area. Based on reflections, debates, and situations arising from our practice as researchers, advisors, members of CEP, and/or CONEP working groups, we discuss how, from various understandings of the notion of “risk” and its typification, and a contractual ideology of the research relationship based on the idea of “authorization,” the concept of “pending issues” is produced, a key category in the evaluation by ethics committees. Attempts to establish models for these three categories encounter the complexity involved in fieldwork, which is formed by different actors with distinct and sometimes conflicting interests, commonly observed in institutions permeated by power relations, especially in the field of health.