Research Ethics

This week we looked at the ethics involved in doing research with human subjects. I personally have never done research with living subjects – every subject I’ve looked previously in school in a research project has been dead for 100 years. I found Knight’s list about building relationships coincided with the University of Toronto’s Guidelines and Practices Manual For Research Involving Human Research. I argue this because Chapter 2 in Manual outlines the Principles of Research Ethics, which includes: respect for human dignity, free and informed consent, respect for vulnerable persons, respect for privacy and confidentiality, respect for justice and inclusiveness, balancing harms and benefits, minimizing harms, and maximizing benefits. After reading Knight’s list, it is clear that to build a good relationship with the research subjects, research ethics can help do this. For example, free and informed consent in the manual is like the first point on Knight’s list “Getting potential participants’ informed consent by telling them clearly what the research is about” (p. 170). Thus, maybe there is not such a fine line between the guidelines for research ethics, and building a good relationship with the participants of the study.