Question

Discuss the biomedical ethical principles proposed in the Belmont Report and the application of each of these principles to biomedical research and practice

Answer 1

Answer: Belmont report is one of the leading concerning ethics whose purpose is to provide diagnosis, preventive treatment or therapy to particular individuals.

The three principles are:

1. Respect for persons.
2. Beneficence.
3. Justice.

Application of principles to biomedical reseach and practice:

1) Respect for person: It requires that subjects, to the degree that they are capable, be given the opportunity to choose what shall or shall not happen to them. It includes the informed consent. It consist of three elements i.e. Information, Comprehension. Voluntariness.

2) Beneficence: Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecting their decisions and protecting them from harm, but also by making efforts to secure their well-being. It consists of elements that includes:

i) The Nature and Scope of the Risks and Benefits : for example, risks of psychological harm, physical harm, legal harm, social harm and economic harm and the corresponding benefits. While the most likely types of harms to research subjects are those of psychological or physical pain or injury, other possible kinds should not be overlooked. Risks and benefits of research may affect the individual subjects, the families of the individual subjects.

ii) The Systematic Assessment of Risks and Benefits - The idea of systematic, nonarbitrary analysis of risks and benefits should be emulated insofar as possible. This ideal requires those making decisions about the justifiability of research to be thorough in the accumulation and assessment of information about all aspects of the research, and to consider alternatives systematically.

3) Justice: It demands both that this not provide advantages only to those who can afford them and that such research should not unduly involve persons from groups unlikely to be among the beneficiaries of subsequent applications of the research.

Applications are:

i) Selection of Subjects : moral requirements that there be fair procedures and outcomes in the selection of research subjects.

ii) Vulnerable subjects - Certain groups, such as racial minorities, the economically disadvantaged, the very sick, and the institutionalized may continually be sought as research subjects, owing to their ready availability in settings where research is conducted.