From GEORGE KERNOHAN
All research, whether medical or scientific, ought to be subject to
ethical scrutiny, and I am sure that our first national Council on Bioethics
would wish to consider wider issues than those usually examined by such
committees (This Week, 2 March).
When we think of ethics in biology and medicine, we think usually of
in vitro fertilisation and problems in ‘birth research’, of difficulties
that arise when we deny expensive therapy to elderly victims of disease.
But ethical consideration is worthwhile before and during any biomedical
research, as resources are always limited in some way and the research we
do must be useful, and be properly executed and analysed.
How do we decide which clinical problem is worthy of attention? Are
all researchers aware of the difficulties of study design and bias? Is it
ethical to continue to deny new treatment to patients solely to form a control
group in an experiment?
These questions-together with the traditional ones of life and death-need
to be considered by the new council.
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George Kernohan Queen’s University of Belfast
