Book Review: Ethics in Neurobiological Research with Human Subjects: The Baltimore Conference on Ethics. Edited by Adil E. Shamoo. Gordon and Breach Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1997, 335 pp., $79.00 (hardback), ISBN 2‐88449‐161‐9
Year: 2001
Type: book-review
Abstract: Subjects is a collection of papers written by attendees of an Ethics Conference held in Baltimore in 1995.The book addresses the ethical considerations unique to persons with mental illness participating in human research.The first seven chapters provide an historical overview of ethics cases that have contributed to present-day policies regulating human research, and the remaining chapters (8-33) are conference papers addressing the legal and ethical dilemmas in psychiatric research.Editor Adil E. Shamoo is a full-time biomedical ethicist who has chaired eight international ethics conferences and founded the journal Accountability in Research.The significant increase in neurologic research in recent years as well as the recent fifth revision of the Declaration of Helsinki makes this book particularly timely.This book is most useful, given its detail and emphasis on policy, for professionals reviewing and designing human research protocols.Familiarization with the ethical dilemmas and the legislative history reviewed will benefit genetic counselors involved in clinical research.There is no discussion, however, of genetic research in the book.Topics relevant to counselors are chapters on obtaining consent and assessing competency of subjects.The knowledge and insight gained from discussions on consent and competency can be applied to issues that arise in neurologic or psychiatric genetic research or to prenatal testing of women with mental retardation.For counselors involved in research, discussions about the changing role of institutional review boards (IRBs) and the inherent conflicts of interest when an investigator recruits his/her own patients will also be useful.As with most texts of this type, there is some overlap of material between chapters.Ethical issues are not addressed by chapter; rather, each author discusses various ethical issues from their perspective.Despite this, the book is comprehensive in its examination of the ethical issues at stake in human research today.
Source: Journal of Genetic Counseling
Author: Suellen Hopfer
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Topic: Ethics in Clinical Research
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W251456985