2 research outputs found
In defence of governance: ethics review and social research
There is a growing body of literature that has sought to
undermine systems of ethical regulation, and governance
more generally, within the social sciences. In this
paper, we argue that any general claim for a system of
research ethics governance in social research depends
on clarifying the nature of the stake that society has in
research. We show that certain accounts of this stake—
protecting researchers’ freedoms; ensuring accountability
for resources; safeguarding welfare; and supporting
democracy—raise relevant ethical considerations that
are reasonably contested. However, these accounts
cannot underpin a general claim in favour of, or against,
a system of research ethics governance. Instead, we
defend governance in social research on the grounds
that research, as an institutionalised form of enquiry, is
a constitutive element of human flourishing, and that
society ought to be concerned with the flourishing of its
members. We conclude by considering the governance
arrangements that follow from, and are justified by, our
arguments
Refining the Enrolment Process in Emergency Medicine Research
Research in the emergency setting involving patients with acute clinical conditions is needed if
there are to be advances in diagnosis and treatment. But research in these areas poses ethical and
practical challenges. One of these is the general inability to obtain informed consent due to the
patient’s lack of mental capacity and insufficient time to contact legal representatives. Regulatory
frameworks which allow this research to proceed with a consent ‘waiver’, provided patients lack
mental capacity, miss important ethical subtleties. One of these is the varying nature of mental
capacity among emergency medicine patients. Not only is their capacity variable and often
unclear, but some patients are also likely to be able to engage with the researcher and the context
to varying degrees. In this paper we describe the key elements of a novel enrolment process for
emergency medicine research that refines the consent waiver and fully engages with the ethical
rationale for consent and, in this context, its waiver. The process is verbal but independently
documented during the ‘emergent’ stages of the research. It provides appropriate engagement with
the patient, is context-sensitive and better addresses ethical subtleties. In line with regulation, full
written consent for on-going participation in the research is obtained once the emergency is
passed