Epidemiology: Disease Detectives
Issues
A lot of the ethical issues or "problems" that most people have has to do with the clinical trials that are done to study diseases. In these clinical-trial based studies, healthy organisms may be exposed to diseases on purpose.
Social/Ethical Issues:
One of the main problems of epidemiology, is “the moral obligation to cause to harm to participates, whether physical or psychological”. “Some individuals are asked to accept risk in order to develop knowledge that may not directly benefit them.” However, each study is designed to answer questions that will have significant value for society and prevent further spreads of illness, improving the lives of future generations to come. Additonally, one of the most important things researchs consider is the “favorable risk-benifit ratio”. Researchers try to minimize the risks as much as possible to maximize the benefits to test subjects. “Research volunteers often receive some health services and benefits in teh course of participating, yet the purpose of clinical research is not to provide health services”.
In clinical trials, in order to avoid legal issues, such as law suits, researchers make sure to have consent from the individuals participating. They must make sure that participants are: “ accurately informed of the purpose, methods, risks, benefits, and alternatives to the resarch, and understand the information and how it relates to their own situation/interests. Another issue is privacy and the use of personal information. This why most reasearchers must keep private information confidential, respect their right to change their mind, and monitoring their welfare.
Legal Issues
