The evolution of research ethics in Canada: Current developments.

Abstract

A decade ago the three major granting agencies produced a policy statement that governs research ethics in most venues in Canada; they have recently (2010) circulated a revised statement: The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. 2nd Edition (TCPS-2). There are both major and minor revisions, including changes to the guiding principles, that will have an impact on psychological research. This paper outlines some of the changes and compares them with the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (3rd Ed.), which is also about to undergo a revision process. Keywords: ethics, justice, vulnerability, consent, deception Resume Il y a environ 10 ans, les trois principaux organismes subventionnaires ont etabli un enonce de politiques qui regit les principes deontologiques de la recherche dans la plupart des etablissements au Canada. Ils ont publie, en 2010, une version revisee de ce document, intitule Enonce de politique des trois Conseils : ethique de la recherche avec des etres humains. Cette deuxieme edition comprend des modifications a la fois majeures et mineures, notamment des changements aux lignes directrices, qui auront des repercussions sur la recherche en psychologie. Cet article presente certaines des modifications apportees et les comparent au Code canathen de deontologie professionnelle des psychologues (3e edition), qui, lui aussi, fera l'objet d'une revision sous peu. Mots-cles : deontologie, justice, vulnerabilite, consentement, deception. Following some high-profile horror stories in Canadian research such as the MKULTRA brainwashing experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal from 1957 to 1964 (Klein, 2008), there was general agreement among granting agencies that there should be more control over federally funded research. This led to the development of a set of rules, and eventually a policy statement, that embraced research with human subjects/participants in medicine, the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Despite some initial controversy over the attempt to develop a common code for disparate disciplines, for a decade now Research Ethics Boards (REBs) across the country have been applying similar standards to all studies involving humans - whether or not those studies receive federal funding. The granting agencies knew from the start that the document would have to evolve; changes would have to be made to take account of problems and complaints coming out of the experience of researchers and REBs working with the new policy. The agencies created the Interagency Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) and the Secretariat on Research Ethics (SRE), which had a mandate to further develop the policy statement. In 2010, the agencies introduced a revised version: The TriCouncil Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans - 2nd Edition (TCPS-2). A major difference in process this time was a series of broad consultations with scholars, REB members, ethicists, and others. The Panel on Research Ethics held meetings in centres across Canada and received more than 2,000 pages of written comments (Eggertson, 201 1). The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) participated in these consultations. Among the many changes in TCPS-2, there are revisions to the guiding principles. The first version had eight principles; TCPS-2 has pared the list to three. In this paper I will compare those principles with the principles of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (Canadian Psychological Association, 2000) and discuss some implications of the revised statement for psychological researchers. The three guiding principles in TCPS-2 are Respect for Persons, Concern for Welfare, and Justice. The first of these is functionally the same as Respect for the Dignity of Persons, Principle I in the CPA Code. Both emphasise the intrinsic value of human beings and the respect and consideration they are due whether in research (TCPS-2) or in all professional activities of psychologists including research (CPA). …