Foster C
Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King's College, London.
J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1995 Jul-Aug;29(4):315-8.
Research ethics committees have to ensure that research projects are asking sensible questions and are designed so that the questions will be answered, that the research subjects who are involved will not come to unnecessary harm, and that the autonomy of the research subjects will be respected. Where research proposals cannot fulfill all these criteria, research ethics committees have to perform a delicate balancing act amongst competing moral claims. These arise when, for example, the research is non-therapeutic or the research subjects are incompetent to give consent. Given that the balance of conclusions is so sensitive, it is hardly surprising that different committees sometimes disagree with each other.
研究伦理委员会必须确保研究项目提出合理的问题,并进行合理设计以便能够回答这些问题,确保参与研究的受试者不会受到不必要的伤害,且其自主性会得到尊重。如果研究提案无法满足所有这些标准,研究伦理委员会就必须在相互冲突的道德主张之间进行微妙的权衡。例如,当研究是非治疗性的或者受试者无能力给予同意时,就会出现这些相互冲突的道德主张。鉴于结论的权衡如此敏感,不同委员会有时相互意见不一也就不足为奇了。