Rumor as ethical vernacular: Ebola and the womb in eastern Congo

James, Myfanwy ORCID: 0000-0001-7194-1287 (2025) Rumor as ethical vernacular: Ebola and the womb in eastern Congo. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. ISSN 0745-5194

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Abstract

The position of pregnant women in clinical research remains a topic of international ethical debate. Yet, the reflections of actual and potential trial participants, including pregnant women themselves, often remain absent. Following a policy reversal in 2019, pregnant women were eligible to participate in a second Ebola vaccine trial during an epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This article follows how this decision was perceived in Goma, a city in the DRC, the meanings and functions of the rumors that emerged about reproductive health, and how these rumors influenced pregnant women's experience of the trial. I argue that the womb became a site to discuss broader biopolitical anxieties about collective survival, but that rumors also became a vehicle for ethical debate amid uncertainty. Ethical debates about medical research continue locally through other ethical vernaculars‐ like rumors‐ and center on contested ideas of acceptable risk, shaped by collective historical experiences.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author
Divisions:	International Development
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2025 10:54
Last Modified:	30 Jul 2025 07:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128355

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