Cartoon by Don Mayne www.researchcartoons.com
No shortage of juicy topics to chew on in this cartoon. First let’s get on the record and say in our experience commercial research ethics committees have very high review standards. They have to because it would spell ruin if they earned a reputation for doing poor reviews. Instead let’s note that research ethics review bodies should carefully consider when potential participants have been pre-recruited or provided on a fee-per-participant basis. This is especially true when a project involves significant risk and/or the potential participants are vulnerable to that risk or vulnerable to coercion to participate. Which is not meant to imply all such commercial providers are ethically suspect nor that whole populations are universally vulnerable. But these are matters that warrant careful reflection. Let us know if you would like any of these matters discussed in a future edition of the Research Ethics Monthly.