Good Clinical Practice Q&A

摘要

In an ongoing study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in IRB: Ethics & Human Research from the Hastings Center in 2012, of what influences prisoners to decide to participate in research, authors Stiles et al realized it was difficult to ensure that prisoners were voluntarily enrolling in their study, rather than enrolling because they were afraid of negative consequences from prison administrators if they declined. The authors stated that deception may be necessary and even ethically justified as a means for researchers to protect decliners from those who might harm them because they chose not to enroll in a study. People in need of such protections would include prisoners and others in vulnerable circumstances, such as students.