Ethics Committee Evaluations
Ethics Committee Evaluations
Imagine you are a member of the Ethical Review Committee for a reputable university. It is the committee’s responsibility to evaluate and either approve or disapprove proposals submitted by faculty members who want to use either humans or animals for research experiments. The proposals describe the experiments, including potential benefits of the research as well as any discomfort or harm that they may cause the subjects. You must either approve the research or deny permission for the experiments. It is not your job to suggest improvements on technical aspects of the projects, such as experimental design.
Instructions
For each of the following four cases, explain why you would either approve or disapprove the proposed research experiments. Evaluate each proposal based on the four main principles of ethical research provided in this lesson. Every research experiment must follow all four principles to be considered ethical.
Example
Proposal: Dr. Croller is studying the effects of separation anxiety on young children. To determine the reaction of 5 year olds under stress, he is planning a naturalistic observation where the subjects (a mother and her child) walk through the aisles of a supermarket. When the child is unaware, the mother will slip away and hide out of sight of the child. Graduate students will film the child’s reaction and use a tally sheet of anxious behaviors to measure the child’s level of anxiety. Dr. Croller believes that if he can prove this is an anxiety-producing event, he can use this in the future as part of an experiment to teach children self-reliance through learned survival techniques.
Response: I would definitely deny this study. This is very unethical because Dr. Croller is going to inflict great harm by tricking the children into believing their mother abandoned them, which is not an appropriate use of deception. Likewise, the information learned in the study does not validate the harm caused by the professor’s methods.
Case 1
The Psychology Department is requesting permission from your committee to use 10 rats per semester for demonstrations in a physiological psychology class. The students will work in groups of three: each group will be given a rat.
The students will first perform surgery on the rats. Each animal with be anesthetized. Following standard surgical procedures, an incision will be made in the scalp and two holes drilled in the animal’s skull. Electrodes will be lowered into the brain to create lesions on each side. The animals will then be allowed to recover.
Several weeks later, the effects of destroying this part of the animal’s brain will be tested in a shuttle avoidance task in which animals will learn when to cross over an electrified grid. The instructor admits the procedure is a common demonstration and that no new information will be gained from the experiment. She argues, however, that students taking a course in psychology must have the opportunity to engage in small animal surgery to see firsthand the effects of brain legions.
Case 2
Your university includes a college of veterinary medicine. In the past, the students practiced surgical techniques on dogs acquired from a local animal shelter. There have been some objections to this practice and the veterinary school wants the approval of your committee to continue this practice. They make the following points:
1. Almost all of the animals will eventually be killed at the animal shelter. It is wasteful of life to breed animals for the vet school when there is an ample supply of animals that will be euthanized anyway.
2. It costs at least 10 times as much to breed animals for research purposes.
3. Research with dogs from animal shelters and the practice surgeries will, in the long run, aid the lives of animals by training veterinarians.
A local group of animal welfare activists demanded that you deny the school’s request. They argue that the majority of these animals are lost or stolen pets and it is tragic to think that previously loved dogs could end up on a surgical table for an experiment. Furthermore, they claim that as people become aware that animals taken to shelters may end up in research laboratories, they will stop using the shelters and simply set these animals free.
Case 3
Dr. Hames is requesting permission to do a sleep deprivation study involving young children. He has hypothesized that children between the ages of five and seven need uninterrupted sleep to do well with basic memory functions. He has proposed a study where children in this age category will be awakened each hour during one night in his laboratory, and then tested on basic memory abilities. These results will then be compared with those obtained after a normal night of sleep. He is offering parents a $250 incentive if they will agree to allow their children to participate in this study. The children will be given a gift card to a local toy store for their participation.
Case 4
Professor Lennon is planning to do a research study to show the outcome of a serious back injury involving the spine and the possible effects on the part of the brain affecting balance and coordination. To conduct her study, she will need volunteers to have a painful spinal tap procedure which would simulate the damage associated with severe back injuries. The spinal taps have a slight chance of causing severe pain that could last for several days. There is also a very slight risk of nerve damage that could cause some short-term paralysis. Subjects will be informed of the risks involved and will be paid $1200 for the spinal tap and for a six night stay that will be required to evaluate the outcome after this procedure.
01.07: Ethics Committee Evaluations (Rubric)
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