Topic 15: research ethics

Question 1

What were the Guatemalan experiments?

Answer 1

• Prisoners + psychiatric pateints + prostitutes + soldier + orphans
• Deliberately infected with STIs

Question 2

Key ethical issues in justifiying research

Answer 2

• Is the question important
• Is it based on thorough knowledge of literature
• Appropriate methodology
• Will results be beneficial in the future

Question 3

Why must human subjects be justified?

Answer 3

• Lack of respect for human dignity/autonomy
• Exposure to rsik for no reason
• Expenditure of resources
• Misleading results
• Doubtful social value

Question 4

Explain ethical issue of consent

Answer 4

• Valid consent = capacity + information + vlountary + continuous
• Process = signed form + oral explaination
• Ensure info provided in a way it’s understandable

Question 5

Explain ethical issue of confidentiality

Answer 5

• Right to privacy of personal health information + who has access to their info
• Data = medically important BUT identifying
• Data should be anonymised + take explicit consent for use in publication etc

Question 6

Explain ethical issue of vulnerable groups

Answer 6

• Misconceiving research for therapy
• Research as the only gateway to some type of medical care
• Sense of duty or expression of gratefulness to the doctor
• Fear of withdrawal of care

Question 7

Explain ethical issue of assessing risk vs benefit

Answer 7

• Benefit must outweigh the risk of harm to research participant
• Degree of acceptable risk partly depends on whether the research study is therapeutic/non-therapeutic = harm would be unacceptable unless the study provides the only hope of treatment for terminally ill patients

Question 8

Describe publication ethics

Answer 8

• Requirement that research results be reported accurately
• Scientific advancement
• Contribution to society

Question 9

Give potential issues of publication

Answer 9

• Authorship
  (Ghost; Contributing but not acknowledged
  Gift; weak or almost no contribution)
• Conflict of Interest
• Fabrication & falsification of data/results
• Plagiarism

Question 10

Describe plagiarism

Answer 10

• Frequent publication misconduct
• Intentionally/unintentionally copying someone else’s work without permission, proper credit or acknowledgment.

Question 11

Describe AI plagiarism

Answer 11

• AI = creates content by analyzing and synthesizing vast amounts of data, but it may unintentionally replicate existing material
• cases when AI-generated content
  closely resembles existing material,
  or when AI-generated content is shared without proper credit or acknowledgement