Holzer Felicitas S
Bioethics. 2017 Sep;31(7):559-567. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12364.
The 'socially valuable knowledge' (SVK) principle has been widely acknowledged as one of the most important guiding principles for biomedical research involving human subjects. The principle states that the potential of producing socially valuable knowledge is a necessary requirement, although not sufficient, for the ethical conduct of research projects. This is due to the assumption that the social value of knowledge avoids exploitation of research subjects and justifies the use of health resources. However, more recently, several authors have started interrogating the validity of SVK in research and offered various lines of argument against the SVK principle as a necessary constraint to research. In this article, I will reconstruct the main arguments of this discussion between defenders and debunkers of the SVK principle and offer a third way to consider the social value of knowledge in research studies. I will argue that the social value of knowledge can be supported by an independent justification. This justification of the SVK principle addresses the rationality and common interest of researchers. Thus, I will introduce the SVK principle as a safeguarding principle for public trust based on a conceptual framework by Alex John London. My approach justifies keeping the principle as a precautionary and rational requirement for human health research that all rational stakeholders can agree upon.
“社会价值知识”（SVK）原则已被广泛认可为涉及人类受试者的生物医学研究最重要的指导原则之一。该原则指出，产生具有社会价值知识的潜力是研究项目符合伦理规范的必要条件，尽管并非充分条件。这是基于这样一种假设，即知识的社会价值可避免对研究对象的剥削，并为卫生资源的使用提供正当理由。然而，最近有几位作者开始质疑SVK在研究中的有效性，并提出了各种反对将SVK原则作为研究必要约束的论据。在本文中，我将重构这场关于SVK原则的支持者与反对者之间讨论的主要论点，并提供第三种方式来考量研究中知识的社会价值。我将论证，知识的社会价值可通过独立的理由来支持。SVK原则的这一理由涉及研究者的合理性和共同利益。因此，我将基于亚历克斯·约翰·伦敦的概念框架，将SVK原则作为维护公众信任的一项保障原则引入。我的方法证明将该原则作为人类健康研究的一项预防性和合理性要求是合理的，所有理性的利益相关者都能对此达成一致。
