P2: Discuss ethical issues relating to research in the health and social care sectors
In this assignment I will, discuss different issues which relate to research in the health and social care
sectors. This includes; ethical principles of research, ethical issues and research, implications of research and
legislation, policy and research.
Ethical principles of research
The first ethical principle of research is protecting individuals from harm. This principle ensures that
researchers take into account the effect that their research will have on the participants. The rights and
feelings of participants should always be considered before research is carried out. The research should not
cause harm or maleficence to individuals. For example, it would not be ethical for a researcher to cause
distress to a participant with mental health issues. However, sometimes harm can be acceptable, this is
known as beneficence. For example, if tests for an anti-cancer drug cause hair loss this would be acceptable
if the drug destroys the cancerous cells and allows the patient to survive. Another ethical principle of
research is informed consent. It is important to get informed consent from individuals before carrying out
the research, this means that they should be aware of how their contributions will advance the research and
of any information they need about the research. For example, the overall purpose of the research, what is
expected of the participants if they take part in the research, what risks are involved in participating and an
entitlement to withdraw from the research at any moment. However, sometimes the researchers may have
to withhold some information from the participants, so that they do not have knowledge about the research
which would affect how they respond. This usually happens in behavioural studies. Furthermore, another
ethical principle of research is confidentiality. Researchers have a responsibility to ensure that any data
obtained from research cannot be traced back to the participants. They will need to organise an appropriate
system to ensure the confidentiality of individuals so that unauthorised people cannot access their personal
information. The system will collect and process the data without revealing the identity of the participants,
but enable all the data to be linked to the participant. This is often done by giving each participant a unique
code reference so that they can be identified using that not their name. Maintaining anonymity is important
in order to protect participants, as well as maintaining integrity of the study in order to minimise bias. The
last ethical principle of research is ethical approval. Ethical approval should be received before the research
begins, any data that has been collected before the approval must be disregarded. Organisations such as the
NHS, charities and university departments have come up with formal procedures for the ethical approval
process. The researcher/s will present a form with all the information about the research to the ethical
committee. The research ethics committee is made up of a panel of individuals carefully analyse the ethics of
the proposed research. They can accept, reject or ask for a modification and resubmission of the proposal.
This process can be very time consuming and can take many months.
Ethical issues and research
The first ethical issue of research are human rights. Individuals who live in European countries have certain
human rights which must be respected by others. Some of these include a right to life, to be free from
torture, degrading treatment, and discrimination and to have their privacy respected. An example of
research which did not respect the human rights of the participants is the Nuremberg Trials. Nuremberg was
a city in Germany where the Nazi’s carried out a large number of experiments on prisoners, which included
children. This also included Jews, disabled Germans, Poles, Romani and Sinti individuals. One example of an
experiment out of many, was the experiment on twins. This experiment was carried out on 1,500 sets of
twins, out of which 200 survived. The experiment consisted of injecting different coloured dyes into the
twins’ eyes to see if it would change their eye colour, or sewing the twins together to see if they would
become conjoined twins. This is extremely unethical and did not respect the human rights of the twins.
Another ethical issue of research is the role of the media. The media has a huge impact on public opinion.
Unit 22 1
In this assignment I will, discuss different issues which relate to research in the health and social care
sectors. This includes; ethical principles of research, ethical issues and research, implications of research and
legislation, policy and research.
Ethical principles of research
The first ethical principle of research is protecting individuals from harm. This principle ensures that
researchers take into account the effect that their research will have on the participants. The rights and
feelings of participants should always be considered before research is carried out. The research should not
cause harm or maleficence to individuals. For example, it would not be ethical for a researcher to cause
distress to a participant with mental health issues. However, sometimes harm can be acceptable, this is
known as beneficence. For example, if tests for an anti-cancer drug cause hair loss this would be acceptable
if the drug destroys the cancerous cells and allows the patient to survive. Another ethical principle of
research is informed consent. It is important to get informed consent from individuals before carrying out
the research, this means that they should be aware of how their contributions will advance the research and
of any information they need about the research. For example, the overall purpose of the research, what is
expected of the participants if they take part in the research, what risks are involved in participating and an
entitlement to withdraw from the research at any moment. However, sometimes the researchers may have
to withhold some information from the participants, so that they do not have knowledge about the research
which would affect how they respond. This usually happens in behavioural studies. Furthermore, another
ethical principle of research is confidentiality. Researchers have a responsibility to ensure that any data
obtained from research cannot be traced back to the participants. They will need to organise an appropriate
system to ensure the confidentiality of individuals so that unauthorised people cannot access their personal
information. The system will collect and process the data without revealing the identity of the participants,
but enable all the data to be linked to the participant. This is often done by giving each participant a unique
code reference so that they can be identified using that not their name. Maintaining anonymity is important
in order to protect participants, as well as maintaining integrity of the study in order to minimise bias. The
last ethical principle of research is ethical approval. Ethical approval should be received before the research
begins, any data that has been collected before the approval must be disregarded. Organisations such as the
NHS, charities and university departments have come up with formal procedures for the ethical approval
process. The researcher/s will present a form with all the information about the research to the ethical
committee. The research ethics committee is made up of a panel of individuals carefully analyse the ethics of
the proposed research. They can accept, reject or ask for a modification and resubmission of the proposal.
This process can be very time consuming and can take many months.
Ethical issues and research
The first ethical issue of research are human rights. Individuals who live in European countries have certain
human rights which must be respected by others. Some of these include a right to life, to be free from
torture, degrading treatment, and discrimination and to have their privacy respected. An example of
research which did not respect the human rights of the participants is the Nuremberg Trials. Nuremberg was
a city in Germany where the Nazi’s carried out a large number of experiments on prisoners, which included
children. This also included Jews, disabled Germans, Poles, Romani and Sinti individuals. One example of an
experiment out of many, was the experiment on twins. This experiment was carried out on 1,500 sets of
twins, out of which 200 survived. The experiment consisted of injecting different coloured dyes into the
twins’ eyes to see if it would change their eye colour, or sewing the twins together to see if they would
become conjoined twins. This is extremely unethical and did not respect the human rights of the twins.
Another ethical issue of research is the role of the media. The media has a huge impact on public opinion.
Unit 22 1
