Report and recommendations: Research involving prisoners -- Preface

This preface is the first of five files creating a single report entitled: Research involving prisoners.The Preface of this report contains introductory letters as well as a synopsis of the recommendations the Commission compiled with regard to prisoner research.Supported by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW)

2023-09-15 Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes of the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research for September 15, 2023

Report and recommendations: research on the fetus appendix -- Part 16

This is the appendix to the 'Reports and recommendations: research on the fetus'. This appendix contains multiple parts. Each part equates to a file. Files include parts 1-16.Part 1 of this report discusses human fetal research. Part 2 explores the value of life. Part 3 considers an ethical appraisal. Part 4 discusses balancing the need for experimentation versus obligation to the fetus. Part 5 proposes fetal research policy. Part 6 discusses moral issues. Part 7 nonviable fetus research. Part 8 covers ethical and public policy. Part 9 explores ethical issues concerning the nonviable fetus. Part 10 discusses moral issues and institutional control. Part 11 discusses defining death in fetuses. Part 12 reports on distinguishing between viable and nonviable. Part 13 relates to the law on fetus experimentation. Part 14 reports on the legal issues involved in research on the fetus. Part 15 assesses the Batelle Report and the Cook Critique. Part 16 covers the stability of the decision to seek induced abortion

Report and recommendations: Research involving prisoners -- Part II

Part II is the third of five files creating a single report entitled: Research involving prisoners.General history, nature, and extent of research involving prisoners in the United States is discussed in Part II.Supported by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW)

Report and recommendations: Research involving prisoners -- Part III

Part III is the fourth of five files creating a single report entitled: Research involving prisonersPart III of this report contains the activities of the Commission including site visits and public hearings.Supported by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW)

Expectations of youth victims of violence regarding healthcare professionals leading them to wellness in South Africa

BACKGROUND: Many youth victims of violence report for treatment at the health care facilities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It was unclear what the youth expected regarding how they could be led towards wellness by health care professionals following an incident of violence (R1.1). OBJECTIVES: This study sought to explore and describe the expectations of the youth victims of violence with regards to health care professionals (R1.2) leading them to wellness in a selected rural community. METHOD: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Nine focus group discussions were conducted with 58 (23 males, 35 females) purposefully selected youth victims of violence between the ages of 15 and 19. Data analysis was done through open coding. Ethics clearance was received from the University Ethics Committee prior to the study being conducted. RESULTS: Findings indicated that the youth victims of violence expect the health care professionals (professional nurses, doctors and social workers) working in their community to act as role models, demonstrate a professional attitude, provide health education, provide confidential counselling services, and establish school and community outreach programmes. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that youth victims of violence have important expectations from health care professionals concerning their wellness. Hence, health care professionals should focus on designing and implementing interventions targeting these expectations.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Perceptions of consent, permission structures and approaches to the community: a rapid ethical assessment performed in North West Cameroon

BACKGROUND Understanding local contextual factors is important when conducting international collaborative studies in low-income country settings. Rapid ethical assessment (a brief qualitative intervention designed to map the ethical terrain of a research setting prior to recruitment of participants), has been used in a range of research-naïve settings. We used rapid ethical assessment to explore ethical issues and challenges associated with approaching communities and gaining informed consent in North West Cameroon. METHODS This qualitative study was carried out in two health districts in the North West Region of Cameroon between February and April 2012. Eleven focus group discussions (with a total of 107 participants) were carried out among adult community members, while 72 in-depth interviews included health workers, non-government organisation staff and local community leaders. Data were collected in English and pidgin, translated where necessary into English, transcribed and coded following themes. RESULTS Many community members had some understanding of informed consent, probably through exposure to agricultural research in the past. Participants described a centralised permission-giving structure in their communities, though there was evidence of some subversion of these structures by the educated young and by women. Several acceptable routes for approaching the communities were outlined, all including the health centre and the Fon (traditional leader). The importance of time spent in sensitizing the community and explaining information was stressed. CONCLUSIONS Respondents held relatively sophisticated understanding of consent and were able to outline the structures of permission-giving in the community. Although the structures are unique to these communities, the role of certain trusted groups is common to several other communities in Kenya and Ethiopia explored using similar techniques. The information gained through Rapid Ethical Assessment will form an important guide for future studies in North West Cameroon

How payment for research participation can be coercive

The idea that payment for research participation can be coercive appears widespread among research ethics committee members, researchers, and regulatory bodies. Yet analysis of the concept of coercion by philosophers and bioethicists has mostly concluded that payment does not coerce, because coercion necessarily involves threats, not offers. In this article we aim to resolve this disagreement by distinguishing between two distinct but overlapping concepts of coercion. Consent- undermining coercion marks out certain actions as impermissible and certain agreements as unenforceable. By contrast, coercion as subjection indicates a way in which someone’s interests can be partially set back in virtue of being subject to another’s foreign will. While offers of payment do not normally constitute consent-undermining coercion, they do sometimes constitute coercion as subjection. We offer an analysis of coercion as subjection and propose three possible practical responses to worries about the coerciveness of payment

Consensus on guidelines for stereotactic neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders

For patients with psychiatric illnesses remaining refractory to 'standard' therapies, neurosurgical procedures may be considered. Guidelines for safe and ethical conduct of such procedures have previously and independently been proposed by various local and regional expert groups