Ethics Case Study Research Articles

Putting research ethics in context: Rethinking vulnerability and agency within a research ethics case study on HIV prevention for young girls in South Africa

We investigated conceptual shifts around vulnerability and ethical issues arising in research using a case study embedded within an HIV intervention project targeting adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in a rural district, South Africa.We recruited 77 participants. Sixty-five people participated in focus group discussions (FGDs); nine in in-depth interviews (IDIs) and three in key informant interviews (KIIs). Data were analysed iteratively using thematic framework analysis. Themes were determined by the study aims and an inductive development of codes emerging from the data. We investigated ethical issues arising at the intersection between the vulnerabilities and agency experienced by research participants. Our findings show that AGYW’s ability to exercise agency is dependent on the social, economic and political context. Understanding the social structures is crucial for interventions seeking to improve the health and social well-being of AGYW.

The Fracking Frontier in the United States: A Case Study of Foreign Investment, Civil Liberties and Land Ethics in the Shale Industry

ABSTRACTThis article provides a fresh perspective on the unconventional oil and gas (hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’) industry in the Appalachian and Midwestern regions of the United States. It presents a case study of this industry in relation to development, democracy and the environment. The article utilizes neocolonialism as a heuristic device and analyses the fracking industry in relation to processes of capital expansion in resource frontiers. It identifies a two‐pronged paradox at the heart of the US energy independence rhetoric. First, the political‐economic reality is one in which the companies involved in promoting energy independence are in fact dependent on considerable amounts of foreign direct investment. Second, despite the purported ‘freedom’ offered through such energy sources, many legal measures associated with the industry ultimately detract from civil liberties, rights to private land and local sovereignty over decision making. Centrally, this article argues that political and economic relationships within this industry may undermine democratic participation and representative government. The case study demonstrates how relationships of coloniality in the fracking industry involve dynamics of land loss, ethical shifts in relation to land, and a lack of local property rights controls that are derivative of natural resource extraction on resource frontiers.

A phenomenographic study of scientists’ beliefs about the causes of scientists’ research misconduct

When scientists act unethically, their actions can cause harm to participants, undermine knowledge creation, and discredit the scientific community. Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training is one of the main ways institutions try to prevent scientists from acting unethically. However, this only addresses the problem if scientists value the training, and if the problem stems from ignorance. This study looks at what scientists think causes unethical behavior in science, with the hopes of improving RCR training by shaping it based on the views of the targeted audience ( n = 14 scientists). Previous studies have surveyed scientists about what they believe causes unethical behavior using pre-defined response items. This study uses a qualitative research methodology to elicit scientists’ beliefs without predefining the range of responses. The data for this phenomenographic study were collected from interviews which presented ethical case studies and asked subjects how they would respond to those situations. Categories and subcategories were created to organize their reasonings. This work will inform the development of future methods for preventing unethical behavior in research.

Good Proctor or "Big Brother"? Ethics of Online Exam Supervision Technologies.

Online exam supervision technologies have recently generated significant controversy and concern. Their use is now booming due to growing demand for online courses and for off-campus assessment options amid COVID-19 lockdowns. Online proctoring technologies purport to effectively oversee students sitting online exams by using artificial intelligence (AI) systems supplemented by human invigilators. Such technologies have alarmed some students who see them as a “Big Brother-like” threat to liberty and privacy, and as potentially unfair and discriminatory. However, some universities and educators defend their judicious use. Critical ethical appraisal of online proctoring technologies is overdue. This essay provides one of the first sustained moral philosophical analyses of these technologies, focusing on ethical notions of academic integrity, fairness, non-maleficence, transparency, privacy, autonomy, liberty, and trust. Most of these concepts are prominent in the new field of AI ethics, and all are relevant to education. The essay discusses these ethical issues. It also offers suggestions for educational institutions and educators interested in the technologies about the kinds of inquiries they need to make and the governance and review processes they might need to adopt to justify and remain accountable for using online proctoring technologies. The rapid and contentious rise of proctoring software provides a fruitful ethical case study of how AI is infiltrating all areas of life. The social impacts and moral consequences of this digital technology warrant ongoing scrutiny and study.

The End of Meaningful Work in the Not-for-Profit Sector? A Case Study of Ethics in Employee Relations Under the New Business-Like Operation Regime

Developed from meaningful work and business ethics, we investigate the motivational effect of meaningful work on paid staff (not volunteers) with a “shortage” of ethical employment practices situated in the Not-for-Profit sector. We tested the traditional notion of meaningful work by nature and by line manager support (under its business-like practices) to compensate for the “sacrifice” (low pay and job stress caused by poor employment terms) of front line staff working alongside professional managers paid the market rate. Using a mixed-method case study, we employed SEM modelling to analyse a staff survey of 125 valid responses and administrative records of staff resignation, alongside interviews. The results show that meaningful work by nature and by line manager support are positively and significantly associated with job satisfaction but neither has a significant effect on staff resignation action. There is no empirical evidence to support the compensating effect of meaningful work by nature; meaningful work by line manager support has a stronger effect only through reduced job stress, rather than compensating for the low pay, in preventing resignation. The qualitative analysis reveals that continued low pay and using precarious employment contracts have evoked the questioning of ethics of employment practices in this sector. We discuss the implications and suggest further areas of research.

Media Representation of the Moment of Death: Dying Person’s Dignity in the Teaching of the Church and Journalistic Practice

The author of the article poses the question repeatedly asked in the world of media, culture and science, concerning the limits of journalistic integrity and informational necessity in the media coverage of human death, especially in relation to how the moment of a tragic death and its immediate consequences are presented. He considers the teachings of the Church and John Paul II on the necessity of respecting human dignity in journalism, with particular focus on the dignity of the dying person, in addition to the respect towards the body of the deceased person. The author analyzes selected media messages with content of interest from the years 2017–2020, and referring to the reactions of some representatives of foreign media, he makes an attempt to construct a list of postulates for increasing the degree of sensitivity in the area of the discussed issues. In the preparation of this article, which is essentially a case study in journalistic ethics, the method of content analysis was used primarily in rela­tion to the examined media presentations and the analytical‑synthetic method when it comes to extracting ethical guidelines from the analyzed texts and in constructing the conclusions.

Visitor restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic: An ethical case study.

To prevent and reduce the transmission of the coronavirus to vulnerable populations, the World Health Organization recommended the restriction of visitors to nursing homes. It was recognised that such restrictions could have profound impact on residents and their families. Nonetheless, these measures were strictly imposed over a prolonged period in many countries; impeding families from remaining involved in their relatives' care and diluting the meaningful connections for residents with society. It is timely to explore the impact of public health measures on people living in nursing homes from an ethical perspective. In order to foreground the ethical dimensions of the implications of visitor restrictions in nursing homes, we compiled an ethical case that reflects some recent experiences of nursing homes residents and their families, in the Irish Republic. We describe a series of events encountered by a woman and her family during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 and we deploy an ethical decision-making tool to guide and structure our analysis. Our case analysis draws attention to ethical principles that are relevant to explicating the ethical duties and obligations that arise in relation to the interests, well-being, and safety of residents and their families, as well as nursing home staff and the wider community during a pandemic. These include the right of autonomy, trust, minimising harm, and proportionality. We conclude that a number of different strategies should be adopted by nursing homes and relevant regulatory bodies. This includes honest, regular communication between the nursing home staff, the resident and their family. Central to communications is the resident's wishes, their current clinical status and the all-important wider public health obligations. National strategies include mass vaccination, the timely provision of guidance documents and interventions from regulatory bodies that are patient-centred, adaptable, and cost effective.

Using the Anatomy Learning Space as a Laboratory to Teach Ethics and Professionalism

In medical education, much learning occurs outside of the stated educational objectives [1]. Recognizing the potential impact of the “hidden curriculum” on professional formation, an educational intervention was designed to intentionally bring forward issues of professionalism and ethics that could be addressed through the teaching of anatomy [2,3]. This educational intervention sought to use the anatomy dissection experience as a ‘laboratory’ to teach ethics and professionalism to first year medical students (M1s). The educational intervention consisted of three components: (1) an online, pre-laboratory preparation module, (2) the laboratory experience, and (3) a reflective post-laboratory debriefing session. The first component included video presentations from a physician and lawyer each with training in bioethics introducing ethical and professional considerations prior to actually beginning the laboratory experience. After the laboratory experience, students engaged with an ethical case study and debriefing session. A brief survey was conducted at the conclusion of the session asking M1s to reflect on the ethical and professional impact of the experience. Students were asked to rate their responses on a 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree) scale indicating how each educational component prepared them for professional and ethical issues encountered in the laboratory. For the online, pre-laboratory preparation, the average student response was 4.1. For the laboratory component the students gave an average rating of 4.4. For the post-laboratory debriefing session students’ average response was 4.7. The average response when asked to rate the overall effectives of the educational intervention for learning ethics and professionalism was a 4.7. In regards to the question of how the educational intervention helped students have a greater respect for the dignity of human persons, the average response was a 4.6. Using the anatomy laboratory experience as an intentional space for teaching ethics and professionalism created opportunity for students to integrate professional and ethical formation into their education. The impact on learning in this space, and recognition of the importance of respecting the dignity of human persons was impactful. This is significant as it recognizes the possibility and effectiveness of integrating ethics and professionalism teaching into the laboratory and other curricular spaces.

Palestinian struggle, South Africans and Jewish Israelis

What role does religion play (or not play) in transnational activism in the context of prolonged violence? The narrow strip of land known as Palestine and Israel has special significance to three of the world’s largest faith traditions – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The motivations of 21 South African and Jewish Israeli activists in support of the Palestinian struggle offer an inductive, contextual perspective on the interplay between differences in religiosity and shared aims and values in this context. These respondents to a case study in empirical ethics hold tensions of difference and yet navigate between religious and other existential orientations in their praxis of solidarity with the marginalised. The article discusses how and why the activists, despite their different convictions, share similar views of the positive and negative roles played by religion in the Palestinian struggle.

Using case studies in engineering ethics education: the case for immersive scenarios through stakeholder engagement and real life data

ABSTRACT Our contribution is part of a broader study conducted in cooperation with the national accreditation body Engineers Ireland that examined the conceptualisation and education of ethics in engineering programmes in Ireland. The paper is a qualitative examination of the use of case studies in engineering ethics education and includes 23 engineering programmes from 6 higher education institutions in Ireland. The qualitative study aims to determine (RQ1) how cases are selected, (RQ2) the goals envisioned for engineering ethics case instruction, (RQ3) the characteristics of the scenarios employed and (RQ4) the preferred application by instructors. A first finding notes the diverse set of goals and application of ethics case studies. The focus is more on decision-making in professional contexts and less on power relations, equity and the broader societal mission of engineering. The second finding highlights the discrepancy between how instructors employ cases and their preferred application. Engineering ethics cases typically include individualistic, hypothetical and historical scenarios. Nevertheless, instructors favour immersive cases set in real or realistic contexts of practice, containing factual or real-time data, which can provoke students to reflect on broader ethical issues. Considering this aspirational discrepancy, we conclude with recommendations that can guide the development of engineering ethics case instruction.

Projection of SDGs in Codes of Ethics—Case Study about Lost in Translation

The United Nations’ (UN) drive for sustainability culminates in a recent milestone document, Agenda 2030, which sets forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Arguably, these SDGs inspire governments more than they do individual businesses and their embracement and measurement at the business level faces a myriad of shortcomings. A case study of internal declaratory documents about sustainability and other ethical commitments, such as codes of ethics, represents a feasible platform to collect fresh and inside primary data about the projection of SDGs in these codes of ethics, and ultimately in the strategy and daily operations of involved businesses. The representativeness of the sample of 30 businesses is ensured by the size of these businesses, their inter-related nature, and significance in the EU. A holistic approach, along with meta-analysis, comparison, and a combination of automatic keyword-based content analysis and of a manual simplified Delphi-method, allows for the addressing of both underlying burning questions—(i) how SDGs are projected in these codes of ethics and (ii) why not in a perfect manner. The main five findings point out the deep conceptual misunderstandings and shortcomings by businesses, which do not properly work with their codes of ethics, and which could take at least partially the SDG’s guidance. These rather pioneering propositions are not conclusive, due to the inherent and inevitable limitations of the performed case study, and need to be verified over time (longitudinally), while expanding the pool of studied codes of ethics.

Managing ancillary care in resource-constrained settings: Dilemmas faced by frontline HIV prevention researchers in a rural area in South Africa.

BackgroundWe describe the findings from a research ethics case study, linked with a team evaluating a package of intervention services to prevent HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) living in a rural and poor setting of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.MethodsWe conducted qualitative interviews (n=77) with members of the linked research team evaluating the intervention programme, programme implementing staff, AGYW enrolled in the intervention programme, caregivers, ethics committee members, Public Engagement officers, community advisory board members and community stakeholders. Data were analysed iteratively using thematic framework analysis. Themes were determined by the study aims combined with an inductive development of codes emerging from the data.ResultsThe findings show that the burden of providing ancillary care fell primarily on the shoulders of frontline researchers and programme staff. Dilemmas around responding to gender-based violence illustrated the limits of ‘referral to services’ as a solution for meeting ancillary care obligations in contexts with barriers to basic health and social services.ConclusionOur findings show important gaps in meeting ancillary care needs. Participants’ needs required social and economic support which frontline researchers and implementing partners were not able to meet, causing moral distress.

Analyzing some Business Ethics Case Studies

Ethics consists of the standards of behavior to which we hold ourselves in our personal and professional lives. It establishes the levels of honesty, empathy, and trustworthiness and other virtues by which we hope to identify our personal behavior and our public reputation. In our personal lives, our ethics sets norms for the ways in which we interact with family and friends. In our professional lives, ethics guides our interactions with customers, clients, colleagues, employees, and shareholders affected by our business practices. Should we care about ethics in our lives? In our practices in business and the professions? That is the central question we will examine in this article. Our goal is to understand why the answer is yes. Ndedi (2020) explains that ethics refers to a set of rules that describes acceptable conduct in society. Ethics serve as a guide to moral daily living and helps us judge whether our behavior can be justified. In other words, ethics refers to society’s sense of the right way of living our daily lives. It does this by establishing rules, principles, and values on which we can base our conduct. The concepts most directly associated with ethics are truth, honesty, fairness, and equity. While ethics is a societal concern, it is of critical importance to the professions that serve society. Because professionals such as physicians, attorneys, engineers, and property and facility managers provide services that affect our welfare, they develop professional codes of ethics that establish professional standards for behavior. This article will be discussing some business ethics case studies.

Can Orthodox Jewish Patients Undergo Palliative Extubation? A Challenging Ethics Case Study

According to Jewish law/ethics, continuous life-sustaining therapy may not be withdrawn after its introduction, unless the patient has improved and no longer has a medical indication for the treatment. We report the case of an 88-year-old Orthodox Jewish patient, on invasive mechanical ventilation, with severe anoxic brain injury after multiple cardiac arrests. Although the patient's son informed the palliative care team that his father did not want to be in pain or to linger in a vegetative state when terminally ill, the mechanical ventilation was keeping him alive with a poor neurological prognosis. Additionally, the patient had previously stated his wish to observe Orthodox Jewish principles regarding end-of-life care. After extensive discussion, the family Rabbi clarified that it would be acceptable to withdraw mechanical ventilation if there were a “reasonable expectation” he would breathe on his own for a “reasonable amount of time.” Thus, if the patient's death were to occur, it would not be an immediate consequence the normal ventilator weaning process. Following intermediation by the hospital Rabbi, the definition of what would be a “reasonable expectation” and “reasonable amount of time” was established by the family Rabbi as “over 50%” and “on the order of hours,” respectively. Following pulmonary consultation, the patient underwent palliative extubation and, 12 hours after the procedure, died comfortably surrounded by the family. In conclusion, the collaborative and interdisciplinary work among the family Rabbi, hospital Rabbi, and the various medical teams allowed the development of a plan that met all of the patient's personal and religious wishes and beliefs.

Assessing College Writing: Do Students Connect with the Text?

Assessing College Writing: Do Students Connect with the Text?

An evaluation of virtual ethics discussion groups as a method of learning on a pharmacist Independent Prescribing (IP) programme

Background and purposeA postgraduate body within Queen's University Belfast (QUB) has offered a pharmacist Independent Prescribing (IP) programme to pharmacists living locally in Northern Ireland (NI) since 2006. In 2016, this course was modified and delivered by the School of Pharmacy within QUB for a non-local population of pharmacists from Great Britain (GB). In order to substitute face-to-face, live training in NI, distance learning methods were employed for one of the modules that involved studying ethical dilemmas. The purpose of this study was to assess participant acceptance and perceived effectiveness of the utilized distance learning methods. Educational activity and settingAll participants within Cohort 2 of the IP programme offered to GB pharmacists viewed an online recorded lecture on dealing with ethical dilemmas. This involved being taught about a professional decision-making model. Participants then applied this model to four ethical case studies via virtual discussion groups and were invited to complete a questionnaire regarding their views on these teaching methods. FindingsTwenty participants viewed the online recorded lecture, and 19 attended the virtual discussion groups. Eighteen participants (90%) responded to the survey. Participants reacted positively to the e-learning format. Following the training, all participants felt confident applying the professional decision-making model and only one did not intend to apply the model to their practice. SummaryThe utilized e-learning format was well received and effective in producing pharmacists who felt confident approaching and resolving ethical dilemmas in their new roles as pharmacist prescribers.

Conscientious objection and moral distress: a relational ethics case study of MAiD in Canada

Conscientious objection has become a divisive topic in recent bioethics publications. Discussion has tended to frame the issue in terms of the rights of the healthcare professional versus the rights...

Words Matter in the Lives of Transgender Youth: Response to “Family Discordance Regarding Fertility Preservation for a Transgender Teen: An Ethical Case Study”

Words Matter in the Lives of Transgender Youth: Response to “Family Discordance Regarding Fertility Preservation for a Transgender Teen: An Ethical Case Study”

Role of the Nutrition Support Clinician on a Hospital Bioethics Committee.

Hospital bioethics committees comprise a diverse group of healthcare professionals to deal with ethical issues within the institution that arise during patient care. The nutrition support clinicians (NSCs) have an important role on a bioethics committee because of their knowledge and expertise of different nutrition routes and the benefits vs burdens and risks of these modalities, both enteral and parenteral nutrition. Ethics expertise is built on an understanding of ethical principles, when applied in clinical ethics, using critical thinking to prevent ethical dilemmas and to assist in healthcare decision making with a focus on patient-centered care. The NSCs have the opportunity to address ethics during direct patient care with their participation in the intensive care unit interprofessional rounds, family meetings, and surrogate meetings. Evident in ethical dilemmas is often the lack of advance care planning by patients and their family members concerning healthcare wishes for when the individual is unable to communicate their preferences for life-sustaining therapies, including nutrition support. NSCs, as hospital bioethics committee members, are able to support the initiative of National Healthcare Decisions Day to help educate other healthcare clinicians and the public about the importance of advance care planning with communication of healthcare wishes and completion of an advance directive. Components addressed in the article are incorporated into a comprehensive ethics case study, highlighting the role of NSCs.

Fertility Preservation for a Teenager with Differences (Disorders) of Sex Development: An Ethics Case Study

Fertility preservation has become more common for various populations, including oncology patients, transgender individuals, and women who are concerned about age-related infertility. Little attention has been paid to fertility preservation for patients with differences/disorders of sex development (DSD). Our goal in this article is to address specific ethical considerations that are unique to this patient population. To this end, we present a hypothetical DSD case. We then explore ethical considerations related to patient's age, risk of cancer, concern about genetic transmission of a DSD condition to children, co-occurring gender dysphoria, and access to experimental fertility preservation procedures. Given the limitations of current technologies, we recommend offering fertility preservation to individuals living with DSD using an informed decision-making approach that instills realistic expectations and minimizes the potential for false hope. Finally, we conclude with practical recommendations for this case based on the ethical considerations.