Research ethics committees and paternalism
Humans; Mental Competency; Paternalism; Risk Assessment; Research; Informed Consent; Moral Obligations; Altruism; Ethics Committees; Biomedical and Behavioral Research
In this paper the authors argue that research ethics committees (RECs) should not be paternalistic by rejecting research that poses risk to people competent to decide for themselves. However it is important they help to ensure valid consent is sought from potential recruits and protect vulnerable people who cannot look after their own best interests. The authors first describe the tragic deaths of Jesse Gelsinger and Ellen Roche. They then discuss the following claims to support their case: (1) competent individuals are epistemologically and ethically in the best position to say which risks are reasonable for them, so RECs should be no more restrictive than the "normal" constraints on people taking risks with themselves; (2) RECs do not judge individual competence (that is for researchers and psychiatrists); (3) individual liberty is mostly limited by what serves the public interest, and RECs do not determine public interest; (4) RECs may have a paternalistic role in preventing exploitation of competent people vulnerable to the use of incentives, and in protecting the interests of incompetent people; however, (5) the moral and political authority of RECs has not been established in this respect.
2004
Edwards SJ; Kirchin S; Huxtable R
Journal Of Medical Ethics
2004
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2002.000166" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1136/jme.2002.000166</a>
Must patients always be given food and water?
Humans; United States; Withholding Treatment; Social Values; Euthanasia; Risk Assessment; Moral Obligations; Ethics; Parenteral Nutrition; Medical; Death and Euthanasia; Analytical Approach; RDF Project; Passive; Life Support Care/legislation & jurisprudence; Malpractice/legislation & jurisprudence; Philosophical Approach
KIE: The widespread consensus that withholding certain life-sustaining treatments, especially those entailing substantial suffering, is sometimes in a patient's best interest conflicts with our basic instincts when the treatments are food and water. Lynn and Childress examine the medical aspects of various nutritional options and the moral obligations pertinent to decision making. They conclude that, in certain limited cases, malnutrition and dehydration need not be corrected and that nutrition and hydration are not distinguishable morally from other life-sustaining treatments that may on occasion be withheld or withdrawn.
1983
Lynn J; Childress JF
The Hastings Center Report
1983
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.2307/3560572" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.2307/3560572</a>