Medical research and their ethical nature

Abstract

Annotation. The article examines the problem of medical researches, which is so relevant and necessary especially today, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It turns out that medical researches have an ethical nature, due to two interrelated aspects – the first aspect relates to professional medical practice, the second – to the patient's personality. Human medical research is based on the "rule of consent". This is necessary to protect the subject of medical research against various threats. The ethical implications of medical research stem from the need to comply with social requirements. The ratio of internal (professional) and external (public) control over medical research is both moral and social problems. Public control over medical research should be limited to such an extent as to leave room for the professional work of scientists. One aspect of this problem is related to the physical well-being of the subject of medical research: an adequate balance between risk and success is determined solely by the physician. The second aspect is related to the well-being of the person being studied as an individual and comes down to the question of who should determine this balance. Physicians attribute this right exclusively to themselves: only they can obtain the necessary information, without putting pressure on their patients. It is important to affirm the "principle of support" for medical research: the only one who can assess the human aspect of research is the subject himself. At first, the patient usually trusts his doctor, but later he must be able to decide how justified this trust was. The scientist-physician must realize that his future as a researcher depends not only on scientific but also moral qualities. On the other hand, fear of the sad consequences of the experiment should not be an obstacle to scientific progress. Important characteristics of the experiment are its reliability and validity. Therefore, medical experiments are an important tool for the development of medical knowledge about a person, about his health.