Maori Consultation: Addressing Ethical Issues in Health Research

This essay delves into the ethical considerations surrounding healthcare research involving the Maori population in New Zealand. It highlights the historical neglect and misrepresentation of Maori individuals within the healthcare system, leading to health inequalities. The essay emphasizes the importance of equitable healthcare access, improved data sharing practices, and meaningful Maori representation in healthcare policies. It addresses concerns related to patient confidentiality, data misinterpretation, and the necessity of obtaining informed consent from Maori participants in research studies. The study concludes that meaningful consultation with indigenous communities is essential for building trust, avoiding conflicts, and ensuring ethical research practices that benefit the Maori population while respecting their cultural values and rights. Desklib offers students access to similar essays and study resources.

Running head: MAORI CONSULTATION ESSAY
Maori Consultation essay
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MAORI CONSULTATION ESSAY
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background................................................................................................................................2
Consultation on ethical issues of health research.......................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The current study focuses on the ethical issues related to healthcare research of the
New Zealand based indigenous population group which is the Maori population group. The
Maori population is the indigenous group differed from the mainstream population on a
number of aspects such as language, culture, beliefs. The indigenous group of people have
often suffered from social neglect owing to their different language. They are often neglected
in schools, colleges and secluded from the mainstream society which made them subjected to
bad social habits such as drugs, alcohol, etc. Some of these further resulted in negative health
repercussions for the Maori community. Most of the healthcare services do not reach them
due to remote location and safety issues which widen the health inequalities. The social
discrepancies were noted in the healthcare services were due to the lack of local Maori
representative within the healthcare units. The language disparities often resulted in huge gap
within the healthcare services. Additionally, the indigenous group of people are often
misrepresented statistically by the researchers conducted.
Background
The current study focuses on the health rights of New Zealand based indigenous
group which is the Maori population. The Maori group are misrepresented within the
healthcare which often limits the amount and the extent of the supportive care services
delivered to them (Beaton et al., 2017). Some of the health-related aspects which could be
discussed with regards to the New Zealand based indigenous group are- Equity of health
care, improving access to healthcare, sharing of patient health information. The equality and
ethics management form two important constituents of healthcare. The equity of healthcare
for Maori provides a framework based upon which the supportive care services are promoted
to the Maori population. It lists three important factors such as – leadership, knowledge and

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commitment. In this respect, a number of researchers had been conducted with regards to the
healthcare services of the Maori population in important areas such as diabetes, cancer and
cardiovascular diseases.
In this regard, a number of policies have been drafted which calls for equal
representation of the Maori population within the health and social care. Some of these have
been proposed in order to prevent the ethical rights of the indigenous group of people. As
commented by Masters-Awatere et al. (2017), the Maori should have meaningful
representation into organisational operational policies. Additionally, the involvement of the
Maori leaders can help in promoting optimum healthcare inclusion. The development of
meaningful partnerships with Maori individual can promote better representation of the
individuals within the healthcare policies.
One such important aspect which needs to be discussed over here is sharing of patient
health information. The patient health information should be shared as per the Data
Protection Act. It has often been seen that the true identity of the patient has often been
disclosed without prior consultation with the patient. Additionally, the health records are
often used in a wrong manner, which is a breach of the legal regulations.
Consultation on ethical issues of health research
A number of issues have been faced recently with regards to sharing of health records
of the patient. For instance, in many cases, the research details have been printed without
changing the actual names of the participants. Additionally, the data for the Maori population
had been misinterpreted in some of the cases and studies which further dilutes the seriousness
of particular issues within the community. As mentioned by Hudson et al. (2016), including
the health data for the Maori population within the clinical studies can help in the
development of effective clinical care pathways. As mentioned by Page et al. (2017), the true

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and the actual knowledge of the health issues have often been suppressed by the Maori
population. The lack of education and sufficient knowledge regarding certain health issues
has worked against the specific community group where they have been inadvertently
included in study groups without proper approval or consent taking (Atlantis, Joshy, Williams
& Simmons, 2017). As a priority population, Maori involvement in health research is critical.
The involvement of the Maori in the health research stems from the intention to reduce the
health disparities of the indigenous group (Farmer, Gage, Kirk & Edgar, 2016). Moreover,
the improvement of the guidelines also helps in improving the quality and the outcome of the
research.
In this respect, a number of considerations should be given prime importance by the
researcher such as –
 Does the research involve Maori as a population group?
 Does the research give the Maori population equal presentation? (justice )
 How will the proposed research project impact upon the Maori health?
 What is the research benefits attached to the Maori population? (beneficence)
 How will the Maori participants be involved as researchers, participants or advisors?
 Can a Maori participant be involved as a leader? (autonomy)
 Is the research free from falsification and misrepresentation of data?
 Does the research address the confidentiality concerns? (risk)
In order to avoid suspicion and build trust meaningful consultation is required (Brown
& Lawrence, 2017). The adequate involvement of the indigenous group helps in avoiding any
potential conflict or misunderstanding.

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Conclusion
The current study focuses on the aspect of ethical issues related to healthcare research.
Most of the times, the healthcare research is conducted without taking proper consent from
the indigenous population group, which could result in a number of legal breaches such as
falsification of the healthcare records, misinterpretation of the results. The study focuses on
the importance of consultation within the ethnic minority communities.
Some of these are aimed at improving the quality and the standards of healthcare for
the indigenous group by giving them equal presentation. Additionally, the benefits and the
implications of the research upon the Maori community also need to be taken into
consideration. One of the most important aspects which had been highlighted over here is the
confidentiality concerns (Glover et al., 2015). It should be ensured that the researcher takes
into consideration the confidentiality risks, as it may promote disharmony and suspicion in
the community towards the rest.

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References
Atlantis, E., Joshy, G., Williams, M., & Simmons, D. (2017). Diabetes Among Māori and
Other Ethnic Groups in New Zealand. In Diabetes Mellitus in Developing Countries
and Underserved Communities (pp. 165-190). Springer, Cham.
Beaton, A., Hudson, M., Milne, M., Port, R. V., Russell, K., Smith, B., ... & Wihongi, H.
(2017). Engaging Māori in biobanking and genomic research: a model for biobanks to
guide culturally informed governance, operational, and community engagement
activities. Genetics in Medicine, 19(3), 345.
Brown, A. J., & Lawrence, S. A. (2017). Strength of organisational whistleblowing
processes–analysis from australia & new zealan,125-225.
Farmer, A., Gage, J., Kirk, R., & Edgar, T. (2016). Applying community-based participatory
research to create a diabetes prevention documentary with New Zealand
Māori. Progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and
action, 10(3), 383-390.
Glover, M., Kira, A., Johnston, V., Walker, N., Thomas, D., Chang, A. B., ... & Brown, N.
(2015). A systematic review of barriers and facilitators to participation in randomized
controlled trials by Indigenous people from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the
United States. Global health promotion, 22(1), 21-31.
Hudson, M., Beaton, A., Milne, M., Port, W., Russell, K., Smith, B., ... & Wilcox, P. (2016).
Te Mata Ira: Guidelines for Genomic Research with Māori.: Te Mata Ira: Guidelines
for Genomic Research with Māori.

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Masters-Awatere, B., Boulton, A., Rata, A., Tangitu-Joseph, M., Brown, R., & Cormack, D.
(2017). Behind the label: Complexities of identifying Māori whānau in an away from
home hospital transfer. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 46(3).
Page, M. J., Wyeth, E. H., Samaranayaka, A., McNoe, B., Walker, R. C., Schollum, J., ... &
Derrett, S. (2017). Accuracy of ethnicity data recorded in hospital-based patient
clinical records and Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry.
Age, 65(69), 87.