Week 13 Flashcards
Three ethical principles from the Belmont Report:
- Respect for persons [dignity]: Implies the need for voluntary, informed consent to participate
- Beneficence = do not harm: maximise benefit and minimise potential for harm
- Justice = fair distribution of benefits and burdens
Declaration of Helsinki, 1964
Basis for most codes of ethical conduct for research as nowadays used
- specified many or even most of the ethical principles that now apply
Summary of ethical principles in research with human participants
- Do no harm!
- Do quality research
- Voluntary participation
- Freedom to withdraw
- Informed consent
- Confidentiality of data
- Avoid deception, duress, mental stress
- Participant debriefing – what done, why
Normative ethics
rules saying what is and isn’t correct behaviour
- Normative ethical prescriptions – do this, don’t do that – tells us what to do or not do
- Common in everyday life and laws
- Basis for moral behaviour
Meta-ethics
the basis for moral judgements
- What do we mean by morally right or wrong????
Gives rise to meta-ethical theories:
- Deontology - “duty for duties sake’ - Immanuel Kant
- Teleology - Utilitarianism “whatever maximises benefit”
- Intuitionism - Intuitively we know right and wrong (G.E. Moore)
- Emotivism - There are no moral facts (A.J. Ayer + CL Stevenson)
Deontology:
- Moral actions should be done without any consideration of what will happen
- There done because they’re CORRECT action, not because of the consequences, even if consequences are bad
e. g. NEVER right to lie, even if it will cause less hurt
- There done because they’re CORRECT action, not because of the consequences, even if consequences are bad
- End does NOT justify means
Deontology in research
Get voluntary informed consent and do not harm
Utilitarianism/Teleology theory
- Action or morally better if it promotes happiness or reduces unhappiness
- The end justifies the means
Utilitarianism/Teleology theory in research..
benefits must outweigh risks or harm
- If it’s our duty and it increases happiness, then OK by both theories
- But if our duty increases misery or increasing happiness goes against duty —>
moral conflict
Vulnerable populations
- Persons with limited autonomy or ability to provide voluntary consent
- Children - need parent or guardian consent
- Disabilities
- Cultural or linguistic minorities unfamiliar with local rights or participation
- Indigenous persons and their history of marginalisation
- Persons in unequal or dependent relationships
- Low literacy preventing complete understanding
- Any demographic at risk of abuse of power
Special oversight of research with vulnerable groups is required, and it’s argued that research conducted with the vulnerable group should offer some ____ for participants of the vulnerable group.
benefit
Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs)
- Hospitals, health services and universities have HRECs
- HREC reviews all research projects before data collection
Getting ethical approval from the HREC, The ethics committee will want to know:
- Why this research should be done at all
- Researcher names, qualifications, background, contact details and affiliations
- Description of the project
- Research design and plan
- Resources
- When, where and how research will happen
- Participant target population
- All about recruiting and retaining participants
- Rewards or incentives for participation
- Costs and inconvenience to participants
- Risks and benefits to participants and society
- Justification and minimisation
- How consent is managed
- Interventions or observational methods
- Data collection procedures
- How data are managed
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Storage, access, disposal, reporting and ownership
- How research findings will be disseminated
