Week 11

Question 1

what is the history of unethical research (5 main events/ studies)?

Answer 1

1. NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS: unethical experiments/ torture, especially about ‘removing’ peoples disabilities. experiments were PAINFUL and participants were FORCED
2. TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY: recruited poor, black men with syphilis, didn’t tell them what they had and gave them placebo treatments (leading to a lot of deaths and more infections)-shows how DECEPTION harms participation rates, and ruined TRUST
3. RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: experiments about nutrition WITHOUT CONSENTING (many coerced into participating+parent unaware)-many faced malnutrition
4. MILGRAM EXPERIMENT: study about why people would participate in genocide (ex. why obey the nazis?)-fake electric chair experiment. it was DECEPTIVE and TRAUMATIZING
5. STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: mock prison where they became ‘guards’ or ‘prisoners’. guards could do whatever they wanted, became ABUSIVE

Question 2

what are research ethics boards?

Answer 2

ORGANIZATIONS that attempt to ENSURE ETHICAL RESEARCH with HUMAN subjects(at uni’s and gov. agencies)-didn’t exist for historical studies
REB approval doesn’t=ethical research

Question 3

what are the 3 key principles of REBs?

Answer 3

1. RESPECT for PERSONS (all humans deserve respect-researchers need INFORMED consent)
2. CONCERN for WELFARE (care about quality of subjects lives-physical+mental health), should protect against unnecessary risks
3. JUSTICE (obligation to treat people FAIRLY and EQUITABLY)

Question 4

what counts as human subject research?

Answer 4

INTERVIEWS, FOCUS GROUPS, SURVEYS, EXPERIMENTS, PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION (sometimes)

doesn’t count: educational tests, primary/ secondary sources, observation of public events (no expectation of privacy), use of public info (ex. social media)

Question 5

what are the 4 levels of research privacy?

Answer 5

1. NONE: no privacy protection
2. CONFIDENTIAL: researchers KNOW WHO YOU ARE can IDENTIFY YOU with records, but won’t identify you in their research (ex. subject 1 or a fake name)
3. DEIDENTIFIED: after gathering data, researcher DESTROYS INDENTIFYING INFO about identities of participants (becomes anonymous-ish)
4. ANONYMOUS: entire study you are unknown

Question 6

where do REBs provide extra scrutiny of research?

Answer 6

populations with LIMITED CAPACITY to CONSENT (ex. kids, elderly, prisoners, etc.) and INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Question 7

what are the. research ethic concerns beyond the REB?

Answer 7

PLAGIARISM (intentional or not-copying/ stealing another’s research) and FRAUD (DECEIVING others about what you ACTUALLY DID for person gain ex. making up results)

Question 8

what does medical ethics focus on?

Answer 8

RISK to INDIVIDUAL people (rather than groups/ communities) ex. not ethical to deny a patient standard treatment just to test a potential new treatment, can have serious effects on persons wellbeing