Research Risk and Regulationist Stereotypes
Research Risk and Regulationist Stereotypes
How much good IRB regulation can do depends on how much risk research subjects run. Biomedical research can harm subjects, but much of it needs no physical contact with patients, and most contact cannot cause serious injury. Even truly ill patients are, if anything, safer in than out of research. Social-science research cannot injure people physically, and its risks are trivial compared with the chances free people take daily In short, research harm “has been far less than the harm arising from many entirely ordinary activities” like walking. So the IRB system has less scope to do good than its severity suggests because research is safer than its rhetoric implies.
Keywords: Research regulation, Research risks, Research subjects, Biomedical research, Social-science research, Research benefits, IRBs
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