Core Ethical Issues Research Articles

The effectiveness of the pervasive method in ethics pedagogy: A longitudinal study of journalism and mass communication students

This study answers Christians’ (1978) call for research on the ‘pervasive method’ of ethics instruction. Longitudinal student surveys identified a robust level of concern and suggested penalties for the core ethical issues of plagiarism and fabrication in professional media careers that increased as students progressed through their program of study. Similar, positive findings were also observed among students from many disparate areas of vocational interest. Qualitative instructor assessments of specific techniques for teaching ethics in an introductory skills course and a senior-level capstone seminar further explicate observed increases in students’ ethical growth. Results suggest that the pervasive model as an approach to ethical instruction through socialization can be effective in advancing students’ ethical development.

Ethical imperialism or ethical mindfulness? Rethinking ethical review for social sciences

This article is a response to the challenge with which Zachary Schrag concluded his article, ‘The case against ethics review in social sciences’ − that ‘the burden of proof for its continuation rests on its defenders’ (Schrag, 2011). This article acknowledges that there is substance in the charges he lays against some reviews of social sciences and that these are of sufficient quantity and seriousness to justify his challenge. Instead of favouring abandonment of ethical review of social sciences, the author of this article draws upon his experience as Research Ethics Officer for Social Sciences and Law in a research intensive UK university to identify the sources of some of the problems and suggest potential remedies. These start with reviewing the warrant for ethical review as the basis for understanding reviewer’s role concerning the core ethical issues of rigour, respect and responsibility in the proposed research. This response concludes by considering the implications of a warrant for enhancing trust between scientists and the public as the context in which ethical review is only one component in a number of ethical strategies designed to promote ethical mindfulness as integral to social science research.

Making development more ‘fit for purpose’

The ‘Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness’ addressed the roles of donor and recipient country governments in the achievement of development that is more ‘fit for purpose’. This article considers progress on its implementation, specific to engagement with civil society. It is argued that such engagement has not been adequately addressed. Core ethical issues remain unanswered. Who is development for? What should be its objectives? Why should civil society actors continue to engage in development that remains unfit for purpose in terms of achieving desirable outcomes? Who should decide on priorities and who should evaluate activities so as to achieve an honest appraisal of outcomes? Whose voices matter most, and to whom should donor and recipient country governments be accountable?

Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding Social Media and Pharmacy Education

Widespread use of social media applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter has introduced new complexities to the legal and ethical environment of higher education. Social communications have traditionally been considered private; however, now that much of this information is published online to the public, more insight is available to students' attitudes, opinions, and character. Pharmacy educators and administrators may struggle with the myriad of ethical and legal issues pertaining to social media communications and relationships with and among students. This article seeks to clarify some of these issues with a review of the legal facets and pertinent court cases related to social media. In addition, 5 core ethical issues are identified and discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for pharmacy educators with regard to preparing for and addressing potential legal issues pertaining to social media.

Participant Dropout as a Function of Survey Length in Internet-Mediated University Studies: Implications for Study Design and Voluntary Participation in Psychological Research

Internet-mediated research has offered substantial advantages over traditional laboratory-based research in terms of efficiently and affordably allowing for the recruitment of large samples of participants for psychology studies. Core technical, ethical, and methodological issues have been addressed in recent years, but the important issue of participant dropout has received surprisingly little attention. Specifically, web-based psychology studies often involve undergraduates completing lengthy and time-consuming batteries of online personality questionnaires, but no known published studies to date have closely examined the natural course of participant dropout during attempted completion of these studies. The present investigation examined participant dropout among 1,963 undergraduates completing one of six web-based survey studies relatively representative of those conducted in university settings. Results indicated that 10% of participants could be expected to drop out of these studies nearly instantaneously, with an additional 2% dropping out per 100 survey items included in the study. For individual project investigators, these findings hold ramifications for study design considerations, such as conducting a priori power analyses. The present results also have broader ethical implications for understanding and improving voluntary participation in research involving human subjects. Nonetheless, the generalizability of these conclusions may be limited to studies involving similar design or survey content.

Quality improvement in general practice: enabling general practitioners to judge ethical dilemmas

Quality improvement (QI) is fundamental to maintaining high standards of health care. Significant debate exists concerning the necessity for an ethical approval system for those QI projects that push the...

Wanted: Human Biospecimens

Collecting and using tissue, blood, urine, and other human biospecimens for various types of research is not new. But for personalized medicine to realize its potential, researchers will need thousands more of these samples for genetic studies. And the particular nature of genetic research--the sensitivity of the information it reveals--has raised host of ethical questions, some which are new to human subjects research. What counts as informed consent when biospecimen may be stored for years and used for unforeseen research? How freely can the biospecimens and the genetic information they contain be shared with other researchers? If research uncovers genetic risk factor or some other important medical information about an individual, should that person be told? Biospecimens are collected and used in number of different ways. Sometimes researchers ask individuals to contribute biospecimens for specific type of genetic study. For example, the National Cancer Institute is recruiting thirty-five hundred patients with inherited urologic malignancies and their relatives to provide blood and tissue samples for study on the genetic contributions to these cancers. (1) Researchers also ask patients enrolled in clinical drug trials, especially cancer studies, to contribute biospecimens to learn more about the genetic contributions to their disease. A different approach is to ask individuals to donate their biospecimens to large biorepository, or biobank, to be used for unspecified future research. The UK Biobank, launched in 2006, was one of the first large-scale, population-based biobanks. It announced recently that it reached its goal of obtaining biospecimens from five hundred thousand Britons aged forty to sixtynine for a diverse range of research intended to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and the promotion of health throughout society. (2) In addition, these individuals answered questions about their health, lifestyle, diet, memory, work, and family history. Their blood pressure, pulse rate, height, weight, body fat, vision, fitness, grip strength, bone density, and lung function were measured, as well. Similar biobanks have emerged in the United States, including the Personal Genome Project, the NuGene Project, Mayo Clinic Biobank, and Kaiser Permanente's Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health. Something Old, Something New With the growing practice of storing biospecimens, sharing them, and using the materials and their genetic data over time, researchers, ethics oversight bodies, regulatory officials, and the public have had to take new look at some of the core ethical issues involving research with humans. Those issues were rendered in vivid detail with the story of Henrietta Lacks, poor black woman whose normal and cervical cancer tissue were given to researchers without her consent. Her cells, known as the HeLa cell line, have been used by researchers for over fifty years for multitude of studies, including research related to the first polio vaccine, as well as cancer and AIDS-related studies. Familiar ethical issues related to research keep cropping up in the context of storing and sharing biospecimens and genetic data. These include concerns about ethics review and approval of proposed studies, informed consent of research participants and surrogates, and the privacy and confidentiality of research data and participants' other personal and health information. Yet biospecimens and genetic data are not the living, identifiable humans that federal research regulations were designed to protect. And the traditional concept of consent as an agreement to participate in research after being informed about the purpose of specific study--how long it will last, how many people will participate, and the potential risks and benefits of participation--isn't good fit for research with bodily materials and data stored for multiple future purposes, some unforeseeable. …

Playing in Their Sandbox: Professional Obligations of Mental Health Professionals in Custody Cases

ABSTRACT Mental health professionals (MHPs) working with court-involved families practice at the interface of psychology and law. MHPs practicing in the legal context are governed by the ethics codes and standards of their profession, but must also adjust their practices to the expectations and standards of the legal arena. The judicial system, mental health, legal and interdisciplinary organizations may present different ethical standards/recommendations, leading to tension and controversy among the various professionals' obligations and concerns. In this article, the authors identify core ethical issues and concepts that underlie most professional practice standards applicable to MHPs in family law cases. Case examples are presented that demonstrate common ethical dilemmas and proactive, effective approaches to avoiding or resolving them.

A review of the ethics in research on child abuse

Research on violence and abuse, particularly involving vulnerable groups such as women and children, has many ethical ramifications. There are few published reports in India on ethical guidelines and standards in this area. This paper reviews Child Abuse: India 2007, a study conducted by the ministry of women and child development, government of India. The review highlights the need for conducting an ethical inquiry in this area. Certain concerns about the conduct of the study are raised. Core ethical issues pertaining to consent and refusal, risk and benefit, effects of the study process on the researcher and the researched and the reporting of adverse events are discussed. The ethical implications of the study and ethical responsibilities of the researcher are emphasised.

The effect of ethics training upon individual choice

Researchers identified two divergent theories concerning ethics education. The first states that ethics education increases an individual's ability to reason critically when confronted with decisions through the identification and analysis of problems and various outcomes. The second suggests that ethics training is about manipulating core values and beliefs. This article presents a retrospective review of data gathered in introductory ethics classes through a quasi‐experimental design. Students completed a 43‐statement pre‐ and post‐course survey of core values and ethical issues as well as a journal‐style self review of learning experiences. Following statistical analysis using paired sample t‐test, the data suggest that ethics training does not significantly change values and opinions but rather increases critical thinking skills and appreciation for opposing viewpoints in the tradition of liberal arts education.

Core ethical issues of clinical nursing supervision

Clinical nursing supervision enables supervisees to reflect on ethically difficult caring situations, thereby strengthening their professional identity, integrating nursing theory and practice, and leading to the development of ethical competence. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the core ethical issues of clinical nursing supervision, using previous research as well as philosophical analysis of the theories of three moral philosophers: Harald Ofstad, Richard Hare and Carol Gilligan. The ultimate aim of this study was to develop a general model for ethical decision-making and to establish its relevance for clinical nursing supervision. The findings highlight four important values for the development of a basis for ethical decision-making. These values are caring, dignity, responsibility and virtue.

Ethical Issues in Child Custody and Dependency Cases

The emotional and psychological risks to children of high conflict divorce have led to the increased involvement of mental health professionals in child custody cases. Numerous service models (Greenberg & Gould, 2001; Johnston, 2000; Johnston & Roseby, 1997) have been developed to assist divorcing families in minimizing family conflict and supporting children'S needs. This underscores the need for judges and attorneys to understand the ethical and professional standards that underlie competent mental health practice in forensic cases. The practices of mental health professionals providing court-related services may have a substantial impact on the validity of their professional opinions, the effectiveness of services provided to children and families, and children'S development and adjustment. The authors suggest core ethical and clinical issues to be considered by all psychologists who work in the context of custody disputes. It is hoped that these professional practice suggestions will also be useful to attorneys and judicial officers in assessing the quality of mental health professionals' opinions.

Comparative Perspectives on Living With HIV/AIDS in Late Life.

The effects of HIV/AIDS on different societies spanning the globe are only beginning to be described. This article describes HIV/AIDS's emerging impact and consequences for families and societies around the globe, with a primary focus on middle-aged and older members. It first provides the current data on the evolving international profile of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Then, using primary sources and published data, it explores three contrasting nation/state settings (Uganda, Thailand, and India) to describe the cultural, social structural, and family consequences of HIV/AIDS. Findings include identification of emerging and potential strains on core cultural practices related to social integration at the community and family levels, as well as shifts in normative role relationships between multiple generations. Direct and indirect challenges to core moral and ethical issues beyond those simply related to infectious disease prevention and treatment are also identified. Finally, this article draws on these explorations to formulate several key priorities for future research and practice related to HIV/AIDS among older adults.

The Tower of Babel: Searching for core clinical, theoretical and ethical issues in psychotherapy

Abstract This paper is about how different groups of therapists view the others now that UKSPC has voted to initiate a register and 1992 is here. Therapy has a set of common aims and these link all therapies together. This paper tries to draw fundamental conclusions for practitioners and trainees. It is a first step in the author's investigations of the frame or field of psychotherapy, which holds both clients and psychotherapists. Mental health practitioners are joined together by a common bond of having the same type of vocation: to help those who are in emotional pain. It is posited that what happens in one part of the field of mental health care affects all other parts of the field.

Final Exit: A Wake-Up Call to Hospice

The publication of Final Exit resulted in a public response that was exuberant, largely sympathetic and, to many within hospice, disquieting. The book and the public response it engendered can not be understood without exploring the Hemlock Society and the political agenda which both the Society and book advance. Hospice must begin a response to this book, and any discussion with Hemlock supporters, from a basis of consensus. Hospice must acknowledge that those within the euthanasia/assisted suicide movement believe as deeply as we in hospice in the need to address the suffering of people enduring the effects of terminal illness. We must further acknowledge that there remain unmet needs in the care of the dying which for primarily socio-political reasons hospice has been unable to resolve. There are several compelling reasons for hospice as an organized movement to oppose the political initiatives of the Hemlock Society--at least in their present form and within the current social context. These reasons involve core ethical issues and issues of direct social consequence, each of which seems sufficient to reject the current proposals. Hospice programs and personnel must enter this debate in earnest. Before serious consideration is accorded to legalization of euthanasia/assisted suicide, we must insist that genuine access to comprehensive hospice/palliative care becomes a reality for all dying patients and their families.