Essay Sample on Ethical Constraints That Exist in Research With Human Subjects.

Research refers to a set of scientific activities designed to contribute and aid in the development of generalized knowledge. For research to be considered valuable, all the ethical considerations must be adhered to and followed, otherwise, it might compromise the whole project. All research must include a human or animal subject. A human subject in research refers to an individual from whom a scientist conducting the research obtains data or personal information (Fakruddin et al., 2013). Human subjects have gained popularity in research recently. Mostly human subjects participate in therapeutic research where the research might benefit the participants or non-therapeutic research which primarily focuses on acquiring new knowledge. In a study involving human subjects, there are various ethical concerns to be considered pertaining to values such as privacy, dignity, and integrity (Smith, 2003). These ethical concerns have been translated by a regulatory body Institutional Review Board (IRB). This essay examines ethical constraints that exist when experimenting on a human subject.

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Privacy and confidentiality

When a scientist is using humans as the test subjects, privacy and confidentiality play a significant role. Research involves gathering information, and it might interfere with an individual’s right to protect private information. Information gathered during research, especially biomedical study might be harmful, embarrassing, and damaging (Fakruddin et al., 2013). Some of the studies focus on genetic information, and this might affect the text subject if not properly protected. The fact that this research contains particulars of the participants, it becomes challenging for the researcher. Another challenge is that during research, for instance, cancer study, the investigator might discover more details that might be linked to the research.

Beneficence

Beneficence is a term common in research ethics and translates into ‘doing good’. As discussed earlier, human-based research focuses on therapeutic and non-therapeutic approach where it aims to help the participants overcome a disease or improve knowledge (Fakruddin et al., 2013). However, the constraint facing the researchers is that in order to obtain information that might one day be useful in society, they must focus on individuals who are living or suffering at the present. As such, research that might one day be helpful to the community might cause harm to human subjects. For instance, while developing a treatment drug for a disease such as Coronavirus, the participants must be positive and are expected to take the risk and ingest experimental drugs without knowing the consequences.

Obtaining a Voluntary Informed consent

One of the most ethical considerations when carrying human subject research is the issue of informed consent. Informed consent is developed to protect the participants during the clinical research trials. Regardless of whether the risks involved a reasonable, no participants should be involved in research without providing a voluntary informed consent (National Bioethics Advisory Commission). Investigators conducting the research face ethical challenges as they must ensure participants have a good understanding of the information of their choice, not only during the beginning of the study but also as the research progresses. The researcher is expected to ensure human subjects are aware of the benefits and risks associated with the trial. The participants have the right to seek clarification on things that they do not understand. Other than the consent being informed, it must also be voluntary. If some situations become life-threatening, the participant has the right to withdraw from a study. Consent that provides participants with a favorable benefit-harm ratio is considered ethically acceptable. In some consents, subjects who risk for the benefit of the society receive compensation for harm or injury sustained during the trials.

Justice

An ethical constraint facing the researchers is to justice to the participants. It is a legal requirement that all research subjects be fairly selected during research. From a historical perspective, researchers used to consider participants who were disadvantaged or vulnerable. Recently, the various group is advocating that though some individuals might be more vulnerable to be used as test subjects than others, the reason that renders them susceptible should not indiscriminate them from including them in research (National Bioethics Advisory Commission). Subjects that might be classified as vulnerable include children who are considered more open to being harmed. Some scientists also believe that women are more complicated than men. The idea of viewing children and women as weak links in research is misleading and offensive. All participants should be treated equally and with the same respect. If possible, research should include all participants while protecting their rights. Major regulatory bodies and government require enrollment of all participants in research.

Regulatory bodies

Currently, there are regulatory bodies and government policies focused on ensuring the safety of test subjects in research. As an ethical consideration, researchers are required to obtain formal approval from the regulatory bodies before starting an experiment (Sanjari et al., 2014). These institutionalized bodies vary from one nation to the other. The researchers are expected to be aware of the regulatory bodies within their borders to avoid unethical circumstances.

Researchers are expected to protect participants' privacy in their research study. There are various ways in which the social researcher should protect their human subjects. First, the investigators should ensure the anonymity of the test subjects. Likewise, the researcher should ensure no answer is connected to the participants who gave them. To maintain anonymity in the field, the interviewee might consider using aliases or abbreviations in a report. Researchers are also expected to adhere to the ethical consideration regardless of the test subject involved.

In conclusion, the use of human test subjects in clinical and field trials require successful adherence to ethical guidelines. In most cases, developing and underdeveloped countries are susceptible to unethical consideration of test subjects due to limited monitoring and lack of government policies. However, each scientist should be aware of basic ethics codes while using humans as test subjects. Moreover, the institutional review boards (IRBs) is regulatory that has been introduced to monitor all studies that involve human subjects.

References

Fakruddin, M., Mannan, K. S. B., Chowdhury, A., Mazumdar, R. M., Hossain, M. N., & Afroz, H. (2013). Research involving Human Subjects-Ethical Perspective. Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, 4(2), 41-48.

National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Protecting Research Participants—A Time for Change. Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 371-379.

Sanjari, M., Bahramnezhad, F., Fomani, F. K., Shoghi, M., & Cheraghi, M. A. (2014). Ethical challenges of researchers in qualitative studies: The necessity to develop a specific guideline. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 7.

Smith, D. (2003). Five principles for research ethics. Monitor on psychology, 34(1), 56.

Yip, C., Han, N. L. R., & Sng, B. L. (2016). Legal and ethical issues in research. Indian journal of anaesthesia, 60(9), 684.