The Ethics of Medical Research

(by Dr.  Elisabeth Gedge, Ethicist and former member and Acting Chair of the McMaster Research Ethics Board)

Medical research, like all research involving human participant-subjects, is ethically constrained by respect for humans and the likelihood of producing beneficial knowledge. Good research design, informed consent procedures and a commitment to distributing the benefits and burdens of medical research fairly create an ethically acceptable framework for medical research.

However, because in medical research participant-subjects are often also patients/clients, special ethical problems may arise in medical research. In virtue of being patients/clients, these participant-subjects are an especially vulnerable population. Furthermore, a common ethical problem is the "therapeutic misconception" - the tendency for both researchers and participant-subjects to blur the distinction between research and therapy.