Hi,

Although I can think of million other important things that I have to do, I have to write this stupid essay on research ethics. The question goes:

"Identify one topic or case in the ethics of resaerch on human subjects where it is not obvious what ought to be done ethically. Give a brief explanataion for your judgement."

Does anybody know of any good cases that I could write about? Or know any good website or resources with some real-life cases? I wanted to write about ethics of stem cell research but the guy said I wasn't allowed to.

Cheers

dude, i'd do the one on death - way easier

End of life is often very grey in this area.

You could easily create a scenario around this. Its still phenomenally murky.

EG: (from just this week)

90 yo female with htn, febrile in respiratory distress... probably pnuemonia. After intubation, medical proxy discovered. Pt w/ dnr.

Do you extubate? If you give abx, she could recover. Does she go to the ICU even though she is DNR?

Or look at the whole DNR vs DNI issue.

Make sure you include something about the Maori culture and the treaty of waitangi in there sjkpark... I almost always get distinctions in these things and I think it's only because I take every opportunity to emphasise the Maori viewpoint

If you are interested in ethics and research on human subjects one area I've always thought was interesting was the question of what to do with significant data obtained through unethical means. Classical examples are the work done in the 40's-60's on syphillis patients who weren't told they had syphillis and were left untreated. Clearly unethical but the data itself tells us a lot about the natural progression of syphillis. Do you publish the work so that others can benefits from the data yet at the same time you are rewarding the researchers by immortalizing their unethical work? There have been similar ethical debates about publishing data from work done in the Nazi concentration camps.

What about the rights of Prisoners and research? It is generally considered unethical to do research on prisoners (ICH/GCP) but many prisoners suffer from conditions (eg HIV) that might benefit from participation in a drug trial. Just my $.02 with a possible brain storm idea.

Found a case. Cheers everybody.

Pianoman: I think death one is going to be written to death. If you see what I mean.