The Nerve of these Ethics People...

Ethicists are "creeping" into science, and boy are they annoying:

In the late 1990s, senior researchers at a national research centre obtained funding to interview young drug users about their illicit activities. When they applied for ethics clearance, they were told by their university research ethics committee that the research could take place only if interviewees signed consent forms in the presence of witnesses. A couple of years later, another researcher who proposed replicating a US study by interviewing Australian legal gun owners in their homes was warned by her university of the 'potential impropriety' of such a visit and instructed to take a chaperone with her to each interview.

What Do Ethicists Say, Dude?

California newspapers haven't usually quoted California ethicists, and their understanding of bioethics is somewhat hampered by the fact that there aren't so many bioethics programs in California that there is a big impact on policy. Until now. UCSD's research ethics program director Michael Kalichman is profiled as part of this big piece on "what an ethicist is."

Interesting New Data on Ethical Safeguards in Psychiatric Research

In December's American Journal of Psychiatry, data are presented that indicate the key safeguards of ethical research – informed consent, alternative decision makers, institutional review boards, data safety monitoring boards, and confidentiality measures- are recognized by both research subjects and researchers as important measures used to protect subjects' rights and well-being. Does a positive recognition of these safeguards by the stakeholders say anything about the effectiveness of the safeguards themselves? -Dominic Sisti

Belmont Report Now Officially Too Old to Live With Mom

From PR Newswire: "HHS today marked the 25th anniversary of the Belmont Report that articulated the founding principles for federal human research subject protections, with the release of an oral-history video about the report and a ceremony to honor the report's authors. The ceremony honored the members of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1974-1979, which produced the Belmont Report and related seminal documents in bioethics and human subject protections." Among those honored for their role in the report were more than a dozen who literally helped organize the framework for research ethics in the United States.

Canadian Research Ethics ...

It could not get much worse at the University of British Columbia, where ethics review of research experiments borders on non-existent and the internal oversight seems to have been utterly ignored. The only question is how widespread the research ethics problems are across Canada. The Scientist suggests that the problem is national.

Alternative Medicine: What are the Ethics of Research?

Maurice Bernstein found this great new (oops - from January - thanks Bob C) piece from Miller, Emanuel, Rosenstein, and Straus in JAMA. Also, Dr. Mo's own reflections on CAM are pretty interesting.

The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science

Brian Alexander let us know about this San Diego Union-Tribune review of Horace Freeland Judson's new book documenting the incredible increase in fraud in science. The book not only uses some "classic" fraud cases but vividly demonstrates the fraud in many well-known scientific endeavors, and the fraud perpetrated by many well-respected scientists. This book could clearly replace many of the "most scientists are great, and almost all are well-intentioned, but rare bad apples spoil it all" textbooks in research ethics.