Two ethical approaches to research on human beings

Since World War II the Catholic Church and national and international study groups have issued separate sets of statements regarding the ethics of research involving human subjects. The Church and the study groups agree on several points, including the following: Research on human subjects is a vita...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth progress (Saint Louis, Mo.) Vol. 69; no. 8; p. 48
Main Author O'Rourke, K D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.10.1988
Subjects
Advisory Committees
Bioethics
Catholicism
Double Effect Principle
Ethical Analysis
Ethical Review
Ethical Theory
Ethics
Human Experimentation
Intention
Internationality
Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation
Personal Autonomy
Research Design - standards
Research Subjects
Risk Assessment
Theology
Therapeutic Human Experimentation
United States
United States
Warnock Committee
Religious Approach
International Bioethics Summit Conference
Biomedical and Behavioral Research
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Summary:Since World War II the Catholic Church and national and international study groups have issued separate sets of statements regarding the ethics of research involving human subjects. The Church and the study groups agree on several points, including the following: Research on human subjects is a vital part of scientific medicine. Ethical research requires the informed consent of the subject or proxy. Research on human subjects is therapeutic or nontherapeutic. The risk of harm involved in research must be considered in regard to the potential benefit. Research on human beings should be allowed only after appropriate research on animals. Researchers should practice equity in selecting subjects and scientific problems to be studied. The human subject or proxy should be free to withdraw from the research program at any time. The two sets of statements generally disagree about nontherapeutic research on embryos and about genetic research. They also disagree on the use of in vitro fertilization and embryo transplants to initiate pregnancy. The disagreements are due to dissimilar ethical systems. The Church bases ethical analysis on a study of the effect an action has on basic human goods. As a result of this analysis, the Church maintains that some human actions are good or evil in themselves. If the action is evil insofar as the natural needs and functions of a person are concerned, it is not ethically good simply because it results in a good outcome.
ISSN:0882-1577