Home Ethical Issues Research Ethics What are Research Ethics?

What are research ethics?

Research ethics describes a broad field of inquiry that examines appropriate and inappropriate conduct in research. This examination is usually conducted using traditional ethical theories and principles. Biomedical research ethics includes the following areas:

• protection of human subjects in research
• protection of animals in research
• ethical practices for researchers (e.g. reporting data, describing protocols to review committees, conflicts of interest, stopping a study, conducting clinical trials, etc.)
• ethical practices in research-related activities (e.g. employment issues, tissue collection for research, funding research, etc.)
• ethics codes and guides for researchers

The reason for researchers to be ethical in conducting research is simply that it is the right thing to do. Some ethical issues in research are clear-cut. For instance, one should not falsify research results, or permit ineligible individuals into a clinical trial, or misrepresent risks to an IRB or subject. Other ethical issues in research are controversial. Is it morally acceptable to do stem cell research or to pursue reproductive cloning? In these cases, researchers may reasonably disagree depending on views about when human life begins and related issues.

In order to provide a forum for controversial issues in research ethics, ethics commissions have been formed such as:

• NBAC (established by President Clinton)
• National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee (NERPAC, established by President Clinton)
• the President's Council on Bioethics (established by President G.W. Bush)
• Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP, established by President G.W. Bush)

Research ethics are important to scientific integrity. Scientific inquiry must be conducted in a truthful, honest, responsible manner in order for society to trust in the validity of scientific results. In biomedical research, ethics requires, among other things, respect for the autonomy of individuals who support research either by being research subjects or by donating their tissue and other biological materials for research purposes. That is why informed consent, privacy, fair selection of subjects, and risk/benefit assessment are important in research ethics.

The recent history of human subject research is marked with many instances of ethical misconduct. Examples include: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital liver cancer study, the Willowbrook State School hepatitis study, the U.S. government radiation studies. In these studies, human subjects were misinformed, not given the opportunity to consent, knowingly harmed by researchers, or even died as a result of irresponsible researchers. In some cases, subjects were knowingly endangered by an experiment from which they would not derive any benefit. Ethical misconduct in research demonstrates the need for a greater emphasis on research ethics and has resulted in human subject regulation (the Common Rule), federal guidance (e.g. the Belmont Report), research ethics courses and related training activities, and an increasing monitoring of ethical practices by professional journals.