On the research ethics

Abstract

Research ethics may be understood as the part of normative ethics that considers the ethical aspects of research activity. The basic task of this discipline is the formulation of ethics rules. The most general rules of this sort are principles of good research practice, which can be divided into three groups. The first are rules of research uprightness, which include not only honesty (excluding such practices as the fabrication of data, the falsification of results, and plagiarism), but also conscientiousness. The second group consists of rules of loyalty toward the research participants, and includes conscious consent, the minimalization of risk, and fairness in the choice of human subjects. The third group contains the rules of research result utility, which impose upon the scientist responsibility not only for the immediate effects and results of his research, but also their further consequences, connected with the social use of these results. Finally, I consider the problem of the area of competence of so-called bioethical commissions that evaluate medical research projects which use human subjects and emphasize that these commissions ought to take into account all of the three groups of principles of good research practice, not only the rules of loyalty toward the research participants.