The ethical judgment of animal research

One hundred sixty subjects acted as members of a hypothetical Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and evaluated five proposals in which animals were to be used for research or educational purposes. They were asked to approve or reject the proposals and to indicate what factors were important in reaching their ethical decisions. Gender and differences in personal moral philosophy were related to approval decisions. The reasons given for the decisions fell into three main categories: metacognitive statements, factors related to the animal, and factors related to the design of the experiment.     

Valuing risk: the ethical review of clinical trial safety

Despite its mandate on minimizing harms in clinical trials, the Common Rule provides little guidance as to how IRBs should evaluate risk. The Common Rule and derivative commentaries tend to conceptualize risk review as an expert-based endeavor aimed at an objective and universal evaluation of possible harm; they also have tended to locate risk in the research activity itself rather than in the context of research. These views of risk conflict with scholarship showing that risk evaluations are socially determined even among experts, that the context of harms can influence how persons evaluate risks, and that forums that approach risk assessment as a technical endeavor bracket from discussion the numerous values that ground risk judgments. Possible reforms are proposed for clinical trial risk review that would render it more inclusive of the different types of risk encountered and more attuned to the priorities of trial subjects.     

How research ethics boards are undermining survey research on Canadian university students

In Canada, all research conducted by individuals associated with universities must be subjected to review by research ethics boards (REB). Unfortunately, decisions reached by REBs may seriously compromise the integrity of university-based research. In this paper attention will focus on how requirements of REBs and a legal department in four Canadian universities affected response rates to a survey of domestic and international students. It will be shown that in universities in which students were sent a legalistic cover letter to a mail survey, or were required to sign a consent form, lower response rates were achieved than in universities in which students were sent a relatively friendly letter. In turn, lower response rates resulted in: sample characteristics that deviated from population characteristics; a reduction in the possibility of testing research hypotheses; and increased survey costs. As a consequence, it is argued that the unreasonable demands of REBs are seriously compromising the quality of research that can be carried out on Canadian university students.     

The perception of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice

The empirical diagnosis presented in this paper is based on interviews with nurse practitioners and physicians designed to elicit their perceptions on the nature and role of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. Having selected five of these perceptions or views which were common and significant, the philosophical therapy offered consists in, first, a general discussion of ethical dilemmas and, second, a critical analysis of each of the five views with the aim of pointing out confusions and errors, the recognition of which can be of applied and practical help in the clinical setting.     

Behavioral equipoise: a way to resolve ethical stalemates in clinical research

Randomized trials depend on clinicians feeling that they are morally justified in allowing their patients to be randomized across treatment arms. Typically such justification rides on what has been called "clinical equipoise"--when there is disagreement of opinion among the community of experts about whether one treatment is better than another, then physicians can ethically enter their patients into a clinical trial, even if individual physicians are not at equipoise. Recent debates over prominent studies, however, illustrate that controversy can be easily created rather than dispelled by trials, with many clinicians choosing not to use the proven therapy until they receive more convincing evidence of its superiority. In such situations, we propose that a new standard of equipoise be used to guide decisions about the ethical justifications for research trials--a standard of behavioral equipoise. Under behavioral equipoise, a trial is potentially justifiable if it addresses behavioral resistance to prior scientific evidence.     

Scientific rewards and conflicts of ethical choices in human subjects research.

The primary responsibility of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committee on Standards in Research (CSR) is to advise the APA on issues and standards related to the protection of human participants in psychological research. A related goal is to enhance the use of good ethical practices by APA members. The purpose of this article is to foster the view of research ethics not as an affront to the integrity of sound research, but as opportunities for scientific rewards, including increased understanding of the meaning of data, enhanced recruitment, and the inclusion of more representative samples. Three ethical practices are discussed as examples of this general premise: respect for confidentiality, use of debriefing, and assurance that participants are noncoerced volunteers. The Committee's intent is to promote consideration of these issues, not to promulgate specific guidelines or procedures.     

不同性别聋人大学生社会支持的调查研究

聋人高等教育在我国正处于快速发展时期,聋人大学生因其身体缺陷需要社会各界提供全方位的社会支持,以促进其身心健康成长。本研究对250名聋人大学生的社会支持现状进行问卷调查,结果表明:不同性别的聋人大学生获得的社会支持存在显著差异,父亲提供给聋人女生的情感支持显著高于聋人男生;母亲提供给聋人女生的亲密感支持显著高于男生;教师提供给聋人男生的惩罚和冲突得分显著高于聋人女生;同性朋友提供给聋人女生的情感支持、工具性支持、和亲密感、价值增进四个维度及社会支持总水平得分显著高于聋人男生;异性朋友提供给聋人女生的社会支持各维度以及总水平均显著高于男生。     

Adolescent and parent perspectives on ethical issues in youth drug use and suicide survey research

The contribution of adolescent and parent perspectives to ethical planning of survey research on youth drug use and suicide behaviors are highlighted through an empirical examination of 322 7th-12th graders' and 160 parents' opinions on questions related to 4 ethical dimensions of survey research practice: (a) evaluating research risks and benefits, (b) establishing guardian permission requirements, (c) developing confidentiality and disclosure policies, and (d) using cash incentives for recruitment. Generational and ethnic variation in response to questionnaire items developed from discussions within adolescent and parent focus groups are described. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential contributions and challenges of adolescent and parent perspectives for planning scientifically valid and ethically responsible youth risk survey research.     

The ethical implications of the new research paradigm

Research is now an increasingly heterogeneous activity involving an expanded range of new actors and stake-holders and employing an eclectic range of epistemologies and methodologies. The emergence of these new research paradigms — and, in particular, of so-called ‘Mode 2’ knowledge production that is highly contextualised and socially distributed — raises new and challenging ethical issues and also important questions about the autonomy of science and the social responsibilities of scientists.     

Towards ethical decision-making in counselling research

This paper explores the process of ethical decision-making in counselling research and asks the question: after following ethical guidelines, reviewing ethical principles and consulting codes of practice, to what extent is our decision-making based on intuitive thinking? The paper begins by examining Kitchener's model of ethical justification and the ethical principles upon which it rests. Bond's approach to ethical problem-solving is also considered. The second part of the paper explores the sequential decision-making process suggested by Gellatt, upon which both the Kitchener and Bond models seem to rest, and compares this with Gellatt's later revision of his model. The process by which we arrive at an ethical decision is then explored in relation to these. The final part of the paper argues that we reach ethical decisions through intuition, informed by ethical principles, codes of practice and reference to the laws of society. In order to safeguard the well-being of our clients and/or research participants, we need to be aware of this and offer up our decision-making process to the scrutiny of peers and the public at large. Although much of the paper explores this process at a general level, research undertaken into children's perception of stress will be used as an example.     

Psychosocial treatment research with ethnic minority populations: ethical considerations in conducting clinical trials

Because of historical mistreatment of ethnic minorities by research and medical institutions, it is particularly important for researchers to be mindful of ethical issues that arise when conducting research with ethnic minority populations. In this article, we focus on the ethical issues related to the inclusion of ethnic minorities in clinical trials of psychosocial treatments. We highlight 2 factors, skepticism and mistrust by ethnic minorities about research and current inequities in the mental health care system, that researchers should consider when developing psychosocial interventions studies that include ethnic minorities.     

Developing human-nonhuman chimeras in human stem cell research: ethical issues and boundaries

The transplantation of adult human neural stem cells into prenatal non-humans offers an avenue for studying human neural cell development without direct use of human embryos. However, such experiments raise significant ethical concerns about mixing human and nonhuman materials in ways that could result in the development of human-nonhuman chimeras. This paper examines four arguments against such research, the moral taboo, species integrity, "unnaturalness," and human dignity arguments, and finds the last plausible. It argues that the transfer of human brain or retinal stem cells to nonhuman embryos would not result in the development of human-nonhuman chimeras that denigrate human dignity, provided such stem cells are dissociated. The article provides guidelines that set ethical boundaries for conducting such research that are consonant with the requirements of human dignity.     

临床均势原则辨析——对临床科研方法的伦理思考

随机对照试验作为一种评价新疗法的可靠设计方法,开始逐渐被世界范围内的临床医生所广泛接受和采用,成为目前最重要的试验方法之一.RCT的运用应该遵循一定的伦理准则,即临床均势原则.围绕临床均势原则这一主题,对随机时照试验的方法论进行较为深入的伦理学思考.并对临床均势的内涵、伦理意义,以及这一伦理要求在实践中所引发的各种伦理争论加以探讨.     

临床均势原则辨析——对临床科研方法的伦理思考

随机对照试验作为一种评价新疗法的可靠设计方法,开始逐渐被世界范围内的临床医生所广泛接受和采用,成为目前最重要的试验方法之一。RCT的运用应该遵循一定的伦理准则,即临床均势原则。围绕临床均势原则这一主题,对随机对照试验的方法论进行较为深入的伦理学思考。并对临床均势的内涵、伦理意义,以及这一伦理要求在实践中所引发的各种伦理争论加以探讨。