Lecture 5- Ethics

Question 1

What are the Benefits of Research? Through a Positivist, and non-Positivist Perspective

Answer 1

Positivist: Research provides potentially valuable information to aid Society
Non-Positivist: Research provides greater understanding, gives a voice to marginalised voices and starts social change

Question 2

List the Harms of Research (3)

Answer 2

• The Participants involved are typically in danger of harm
• Findings from poorly conducted research could lead people to do the wrong thing, and lead to bigger problems
• Research costs money (has an opportunity cost)

Question 3

What are the three instances in which we may not be able to obtain research consent?

Answer 3

1. People who can’t give consent (not fully autonomous e.g. children and people with severe dementia)
2. Research Methods that require concealment
3. Retrospective Studies- Using data from deceased people

Question 4

What are the three principles of the Belmont Report?

Answer 4

1. Respect for Persons
2. Beneficence
3. Justice

Question 5

Define “Respect for Persons”

Answer 5

• Gain fully informed, and voluntary consent
• Ability to refuse/discontinue
• Make participants aware of all risks and benefits of the study
• Only use Deception where it is absolutely necessary for the study design
• Participants must be told about the deception at the end of the study, and given the right to withdraw their data

Question 6

Define “Beneficence”

Answer 6

Researchers have an obligation to maximise benefits and minimise harms
The Benefits should outweigh the harms

Question 7

Define “Justice”

Answer 7

• Equal treatment of participants
• Cannot exclude a certain population group unless it is for the particular purpose of that research
• Should not target people that are easy to gain participation from
• Have to consider the participants ability to actually bear the research risks

Question 8

Give Details on the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital Study

Answer 8

Hospitalised elderly patients were injected with live cancer cells- without consent!
Researchers justified this with “they were going to die anyways”

No Respect for patients- Was NOT voluntary, they were never informed or asked permission

Question 9

Give details of the Willowbrook Hepatitis Study

Answer 9

Institutionalised children intentionally injected with Hepatitis A infected stools.
Tested the effect of a potential treatment on hepatitis.
Claimed that most of the children would get hepatitis anyway

No Justice- intentionally picked on participants that were easily gained consent from. The children had no parents to look out for their best interests.
The children themselves were not autonomous so could not make the decision fairly anyways- so no respect for persons either.

Question 10

Give details on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Answer 10

Study to test what syphilis does to the body
399 Poor black men with syphilis were included in the study. They were never told that they had syphilis.
Denied treatment even after a cure was discovered.

Totally unnecessary trial- did not need to continue study any longer because a successful treatment was already found for the disease. Wrong to not inform men of their health status- especially because it meant that they were not given the choice to seek treatment. Therefore, no Beneficence. The researchers did not do everything they could to minimise harm and maximise benefits to the participants

Question 11

What are some techniques that prevent research fraud? (4)

Answer 11

1. Publication and Openness- about the research methods, issues faced, proper evaluation of work
2. Allocation of Credit- Plagiarism, falsification and fabrication
3. Authorship- Claim when you have done the work
4. Conflicts of Interest- as reviewers too

Question 12

What is the role of the Ethics Committee?

Answer 12

IRB Protect the rights of the research subjects
Independent of the researchers view- therefore more objective
Judge the methodologies, and also the risks to confidentiality.