The Coexistent Temporalities: Multilayered Ethics in Birth Cohort Studies

The chapter analyzes how the ethical guidelines and prescriptions guiding cohort studies have changed from the mid-1960s to the present and asks how a cohort research community has adjusted to these changes. Birth cohort studies, due to their extensive use of human subjects and their usually extended length, are particularly well suited for investigating the issue. The case through which the issue is tackled is the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts 1966 and 1986 (NFBC). Launched in 1965, the NFBC initially comprised 12,231 children and their mothers. The second birth cohort was started in 1985. It consisted of 9,479 children and their mothers. The main finding of the chapter is that the NFBC scientists share a similar understanding of research ethics, an understanding that acknowledges past circumstances in epidemiological knowledge-production but also constantly seeks to adjust to changes in research ethics. Their understanding of ethical research is thus temporally multi-layered. The history of research ethics in birth cohort studies offers a way to examine how epidemiological knowledge-production has been governed and affected by temporality.