Journal Entry #4 - Research Ethics in Human Testing

Last week, I completed the NIH's Protecting Human Research Participants workshop as part of our class requirements.  The workshop not only taught us what types of guidelines we should use when conducting research with humans but also the why behind why those guidelines were put into place.  It's really some nasty stuff.  In a yahoo article, Stobbe (2/27/10) discusses and gives an overview of some of the past medical testing experiments that's been done.  I really don't want to envision what those researchers were thinking or not thinking when they were experimenting on people like that.  I don't like the thought that they were probably doing those experiments with the best intentions of finding a cure or saving humanity.  After reading this article and the information in the workshop, I am really glad that there are guidelines out there for researchers to follow. 

This has me reflecting on how ethics plays a part in my own research.  Am I protecting those involved in my research as well as possible?  Am I watching out for those who can't protect themselves such as children in my research?  Luckily this isn't a new area of thought for me.  When working towards my child development degree I was taught the importance of protecting children during research or observations.  But most of my observations were on a small scale, in a single classroom or of a single child.  Only lately have I been thinking in terms of research at the larger level - such as a whole community or a library filled with patrons.  

My past research has been heavy in observational notes.  It seems normal to me to not use a person's real name when writing about situations and to let them know what I am doing in terms of why I am researching.  Confidentiality, anonymity, and trust are all conducive to my natural way of researching.  It isn't in me to take advantage of someone intentionally.  I definitely think we need to be aware of all aspects of what we are doing when we research.  We need to look at it from different viewpoints and angles in order to assure ourselves and those we are researching that we are truly minimizing the amount of risk and harm they may come in contact with.