Along with voluntary participation there also needs to be informed consent from participants. This means they need to be aware of the procedures and risks involved. This also means that participants should not be subject to any risk outside of there normal living circumstances.
William M.K. Trochim, (2006). Ethics in Research. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ethics.php
William M.K. Trochim, (2006). Ethics in Research. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ethics.php
Children are included in the category known as vulnerable participants,
ReplyDeletewhich includes the following: Minors (i.e. children of less than 16 years
old), pregnant women and prisoners; persons with a mental disability;
persons who are illiterate or have limited formal education; persons with
limited access to health services; and women in some cultural settings.
Most of these groups are not able to consent for themselves due to limits
to their understanding or inability to validly consent. Pregnant women are
excluded from some research studies due to perceived or likely harm to
the foetus. Women in certain cultural settings are unable to consent
unless they have also obtained the consent of their husband. Although a
prisoner may be able to make a valid consent, this population has been
abused as research population by inclusion in experiments without
consent.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/methics/McGrath.pdf
To add to my previous point and Lisa's here is a little more broken down information on consent:
ReplyDeleteConsent can be broken down into three parts these are.. capacity, information, and voluntariness.
Capacity - This adds to Lisa's previous comment on whether the person can actually decide to give consent or not. For example a child or a mentally disabled child may not be able to make this decision.
Information - The subject has to be fully informed as to what the research is about and how it will be undertaken. & to also make sure they understand there roles as subjects.
Voluntariness - This mean that the study must of volunteered to of been in the study and must not have been forced, bullied or coerced. The subject must of be able to be withdrawn at any time at there own will. Usually children can participate in studies but this is much much harder to gain there consent and this has to be thought of very carefully.
Rodger Marion, November 20th (2004), Ethics In Research. Retrieved November 23rd (2010), from http://www.sahs.utmb.edu/pellinore/intro_to_research/wad/ethics.htm
ReplyDeleteTo add to this, consent is now a necessity in medical research as show in guidelines formed by the Institional reveiw board (IRB)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/orgstructure/boards/irb/index.cfm