Pickworth E
University of Manchester.
J Med Ethics. 2000 Oct;26(5):330-3. doi: 10.1136/jme.26.5.330.
The function of local research ethics committees is to consider the ethics of research proposals using human participants. After approval has been given, there is no comprehensive system in place to monitor research and ensure that recommendations are carried out. Some suggest that research ethics committees are ideally placed to fulfil this function by carrying out random monitoring of research they have reviewed. The health service guideline creating local research ethics committees is under review. This paper suggests that increasing the monitoring role of ethics committees in the present climate would be inappropriate. This is due to the large workload of the committees, their voluntary nature and the change a monitoring role might cause to the relationship between researcher and ethics committee, which might herald an increasing recourse to judicial review. A radical overhaul of the system would be necessary in order for ethics committees adequately to fulfil a monitoring function.
地方研究伦理委员会的职能是审议涉及人类受试者的研究提案的伦理问题。提案获批后，却没有一个全面的系统来监督研究并确保各项建议得以落实。一些人认为，研究伦理委员会完全有能力通过对其已审查的研究进行随机监督来履行这一职能。目前正在对设立地方研究伦理委员会的医疗卫生服务指南进行审查。本文认为，在当前情况下增加伦理委员会的监督作用是不合适的。这是因为委员会工作量巨大、具有自愿性质，而且监督角色可能会改变研究者与伦理委员会之间的关系，这可能预示着司法审查的增多。为使伦理委员会充分履行监督职能，有必要对该系统进行彻底改革。
