1.1 Ethical issues in graduate research  (Page 7/9)

Principles

• Respect for Persons : "Individuals should be treated as autonomous agents." "Persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection." the Intro to RCR characterizes respect for persons as "their right to make decisions for and about themselves without undue influence or coercion from someone else (the researcher in most cases).
• Beneficence : "[D]o not harm" and "maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms."
• Justice : "Who ought to receive the benefits of reseach and bear its burdens?" The introduction to RCR characterizes it as "the obligation to distribute benefits and risks equally without prejudice to particular individuals or groups, such as the mentally disadvantaged or members of a particular race or gender." This concentrates primarily on distributive justice and what Nozick calls the patterns of distribution include equal shares, need, effort, societal controls, and merit.

Applications in research

• Informed Consent : "Respect for persons requires that subjects, to the degree that they are capable, be given the opportunity to choose what shall or shall not happen to them. This opportunity is provided when adequate standards for informed consent are satisfied." This is unpacked in terms of information (receiving information pertinent to consenting to participate), comprehension (understanding and appreciating the information communicated), and voluntariness (which excludes participation obrained through coercion or compulsion.)
• Assessment of the risks and benefits : "The assessment of risks and benefits requires a careful arrayal of relevant data, including, in some cases, alternative ways of obtaining the benefits sought in the research. Thus, the assessment presents both an opportunity and a responsibility to gather systematic and comprehensive information about proposed research. For the investigator, it is a means to examine whether the proposed research is properly designed. For a review committee, it is a method for determining whether the risks that will be presented to subjects are justified. For prospective subjects, the assessment will assist the determination whether or not to participate." Sub-issues concern the nature and scope of consequences considered and what the report terms "systematic assessment." Other issues included under assessment of risks and benefits: brutal and inhumane consequences, necessary risk, serious impairment, vulnerable populations and documentation of informed consent procedures.
• Selection of Subjects : This touches most on the principle of justice. "Just as the principle of respect for persons finds expression in the requirements for consent, and the principle of beneficence in risk/benefit assessment, the principle of justice gives rise to moral requirements that there be fair procedures and outcomes in the selection of research subjects."

What you are going to do

Exercise 1: take research ethics pre-test

1. Click on the Media File above to take the Research Ethics Pre-Test
2. This exercise is not a formal test. Instead, it is designed to help you begin to recognize how ethical issues permeate research. Of special importance are the cases in this exercise that look at research as it is constrained by the business environment. Ask yourself two questions. First, does competition distort or deflect research? How? Second, does money (and operating under market-driven conditions) distort or deflect research? How?
3. There are three ethics tests that are frequently taught in corporate ethics training programs: reversibility, harm, and publicity. Check out m13757 (Three Frameworks for Ethical Decision-Making and Good Computing Reports) for more information on the tests. Or look up the description given of these tests at Computingcases.org. Does the use of these tests limit the range of disagreement you have with your classmates on these issues? Why or why not?