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ETHICS IN RESEARCH

Ethics in research are very important when you're going to perform an experiment. They apply when you are planning, conducting and evaluating research.

The first thing to do before designing a study is to consider the…

RESEARCH COST AND BENEFITS-ANALYSIS

We evaluate the cost and benefits for most decisions in life, whether we are aware of it or not. This can be quite a dilemma in some experiments. Are the benefits so good that they will outweigh the costs? Stem cell research is one example of an area with difficult evaluations. As a result, stem cell research is restricted in many countries, because of the major and problematic ethical issues.

Why are Ethics in Research so important?

ETHICAL STANDARDS - EXPERIMENTS SHOULD...

avoid any risk of harming people, the environment, or property considerably or unnecessarily. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an example of a study which violated these standards.

not lie to people participating (deception), as was the case with the Stanley Milgram Experiment
obtain informed consent from all persons involved in the study.

preserve privacy and confidentiality whenever possible.

take special precautions when involving populations/animals which can be considered to not understand fully what the purpose of the research is.

not offer big rewards or enforce binding contracts for the study. This is especially important when people are somehow reliant on the reward.

not commit fraud. A con-study which devastated the science in the field for decades was the study of selling more coke and popcorn by unconscious ads. The researcher said that he had found great effects from subliminal messages, whilst he had, in fact, never conducted the experiment.

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