Public Health Research

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Ethical Considerations in Research

Jasmine Fields

Columbia Southern University

PUH 6301 Public Health Research

Dr. Lakina Moseley

March 14, 2023

Ethical Considerations in Research

Ethical Issues in Research and How to avoid them.

There are several ethical issues that might occur in my research study. These ethical issues comprise informed consent, respect for privacy, and respect for anonymity and confidentiality, and not doing harm or beneficence. Informed consent is the main ethical issue in conducting research, particularly in the healthcare industry. Informed consent refers to situations where every potential participant in research receives and understands every detail of the information they need to make a decision if they need to take part in the study (Dankar et al., 2019). Informed consent involves providing crucial information concerning the risks and benefits of institutional approval of the study. The main purpose of informed consent is to integrate the rights of autonomous people through self-determination and prevent integrity violations of the patient and safeguard personal liberty. One of the ways of enhancing informed consent is by providing participants with a text for them to read and asking them whether they have any questions. If the participants reach agreement, they may sign the consent form.

The issue of beneficence entails various aspects related to professional mandate to carry out appropriate and important research to effectively work with and enhance the well-being of every participant in the research. Confidentiality requires one to be aware of whom the participants are but eliminates all the identifying data from the report. Every participant in research has a right to privacy; hence their individual data has to be secured as long as they use or store it. Even when information cannot be gathered secretly, they must uphold confidentiality where possible. According to experts, it is at times hard to forecast beneficence when developing a hypothesis, particularly in qualitative research. For instance, if the research findings show that it was not helpful as it is anticipated, this may result in huge ethical considerations, particularly for those working in the healthcare industry.

Ways Ethical Standards Protect Human Subjects in Research Study

There are various ways through which ethical standards will safeguard any human subject who takes part in the research. For instance, the ethical standard of beneficence can prevent participants from different forms of harm, including psychological harm and legal, physical, or social harm. It is important for researchers to consider every source of harm to participants because harm might be in different forms. Social harm refers to certain things like public embarrassment, social risks, or stigma, while psychological harm involves sensitive questions or tasks that might result in negative emotions like shame or anxiety. On the other hand, legal harm involves reporting sensitive information that results in privacy breaches or legal risks, while physical harm includes pain or injury.

Another ethical standard is respect for persons, which involves people being treated as independent agents and those with less autonomy being eligible to protection. Independent individuals are those persons with the ability to think about individual goals and of acting under the guidance of those deliberations. Respecting autonomy involves considering opinions and choices while avoiding obstructing other people's activities unless they are obviously harmful to other people (Hasan et al., 2021). Some human beings require all-encompassing protection, even to the degree of not including them in actions that might cause harm to them, while others need less protection beyond ensuring they engage in activities freely and with awareness of probable negative effects. However, the level of protection provided depends on the risk of harm and the likelihood of benefit; hence the conclusion that any individual who lacks autonomy must be regularly reevaluated and will differ in various circumstances.

References

Dankar, F. K., Gergely, M., & Dankar, S. K. (2019). Informed Consent in Biomedical Research. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 17, 463–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2019.03.010

Hasan, N., Rana, R. U., Chowdhury, S., Dola, A. J., & Rony, M. K. K. (2021). Ethical Considerations in Research. Journal of Nursing Research, Patient Safety and Practice, 1(11), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.55529/jnrpsp11.1.4

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