Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:02:05.856Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethics of Population-Based Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Holly A. Taylor  and
Summer Johnson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Multiple scholars and institutions have asked what distinguishes public health research from public health practice. Most often, they ask in order to have a clear definition of what one does in various public health settings to assess oversight and/or regulation of human subjects research. More importantly, however, whether something is considered public health research or public health practice has real ethical implications in terms of the general moral considerations at stake and the obligations of public health researchers/practitioners to the populations they serve or study.

Numerous examples in recent history of research ethics, including the Kennedy Krieger Lead Abatement Study and EPA’s Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS), suggest that an exploration of the ethics of public health, or more generally population-based research, may be warranted. Although we acknowledge that there are important ethical issues to consider in the implementation of public health practice, we leave that discussion for other authors.

Type
Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 295 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

L. O. Gostin, J. G. Hodge, Jr., and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Advisory Council, Public Health Practice vs. Research: A Guide for Public Health Practitioners, 2004, available at <http://www.cste.org/pdffiles/newpdffiles/CSTEPH-ResRptHodgeFinal.5.24.04.pdf> (last visited March 15, 2007); Hodge, J. G. Jr., “An Enhanced Approach to Distinguishing Public Health Practice and Human Subjects Research,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 33, no. 1 (2002): 125–141; Human Research Protection Office, Defining Public Health Research and Public Health Non-Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, 1999; National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Ethical and Policy Issues in Research Involving Human Participants, National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Washington D.C., 2001; Amoroso, P. J. and Middaugh, J. P., “Research vs. Public Health Practice: When Does a Study Require IRB Review?” Preventive Medicine 36, no. 2 (2002): 250-53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Institute of Medicine, Ethical Considerations for Research on Housing-Related Health Hazards Involving Children (Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Stokstad, E., “EPA Criticized for Study of Child Pesticide Exposure,” Science 306, no. 5698 (2004): 961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Belmont Report, Washington, D.C., 1979.Google Scholar
Powers, M. and Faden, R., Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
See Hodge, supra note 1; see also Bellin, E. and Dubler, N. N., “The Quality Improvement-Research Divide and the Need for External Oversight,” American Journal of Public Health 91, no. 9 (2001): 1512–17.Google Scholar
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2006” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 55, no. RR-11 (2006): 1–100; Gostin, L. O., Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Hodge, J. G. Jr., “School Vaccination Requirements: Legal and Social Perspectives,” National Conference of State Legislatures State Legislative Report 27, no. 14 (2002), available at <http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/slr2714.htm> (last visited March 15, 2007).Google Scholar
See Powers, and Faden, supra note 5.Google Scholar
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins CARES Mobile Safety Center, Johns Hopkins University, 2006, available at <http://www.jhsph.edu/injurycenter/safetycenters/Mobile_Safety_Center.html> (last visited March 7, 2007).+(last+visited+March+7,+2007).>Google Scholar
This case example is a variation on a case first presented in Taylor, G., Johnson, S., Faden, R. and Kass, N., “The Ethics of Public Health Research: Moral Obligations to Communities,” in Kristian Heggenhougen, H., ed., Encyclopedia of Public Health (Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier, to be published mid 2007).Google Scholar
Cohen, J. and Enserink, M., “Rough-and-Tumble Behind Bush's Smallpox Policy,” Science 298, no. 5602 (2003): 2312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D. A. Henderson and the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense, “Smallpox as Biological Weapon: Medical and Public Health Management,” JAMA 281, no. 22 (1999): 2127–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, J. M., Ruben, F. L., Neff, J. M. and Millar, J. D., “Complications of Smallpox Vaccination, 1968: National Surveillance in the United States,” New England Journal of Medicine 281, no. 22 (1969): 1201–08.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mastroianni, A. C. and Kahn, J., “Risk and Responsibility: Ethics, Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger, and Public Health Research Involving Children,” American Journal of Public Health 92, no. 12 (2002): 1073–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popay, J. and Williams, G., “Public Health Research and Lay Knowledge,” Social Science and Medicine 42, no. 5 (1996): 759–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koblin, B., Heagerty, P., Sheon, A., Buchbinder, S., Celum, C. and Douglas, J. et al., “Readiness of High-Risk Populations in the HIV Network for Prevention Trials to Participated in HIV Vaccine Efficacy Trials in the United States,” AIDS 12, no. 7 (1998): 785–779; Fox, R., Odaka, N. J., Brookmeyer, R. and Polk, B. F., “Effect of HIV Antibody Disclosure on Subsequent Sexual Activity in Homosexual Men,” AIDS 1, no. 1 (1987): 241-6; Agot, K. E., Kiarie, J. N., Nguyen, H. Q., Odihiambo, J. O., Onyango, T. M. and Weiss, N. S., “Male Circumcision in Siaya and Bondo Districts, Kenya: Prospective Cohort Study to Assess Behavioral Disinhibition Following Circumcision,” Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 44, no. 1 (2007): 66-70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, M. and Sharp, R., “Ethical Issues in Medical-Sequencing Research: Implications of Genotype-Phenotype Studies for Individuals and Populations,” Human Molecular Genetics 15, Review Issue 1 (2006): R45–R49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar