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The Montana Supreme Court issued a ruling just as 2009 ended, on Dec. 31, which determined Montanans have the right under that state's public policy to seek a physician's aid in assisted suicide, with no threat of sanction or legal action against the physician.
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One fortunate change in 25 years is that medical ethics has entered the mainstream of discussion and debate, but increased visibility can have unfortunate drawbacks, as well.
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[Editor's note: With this month's issue of Medical Ethics Advisor, we mark 25 years of efforts to bring you the most up-to-date research and news in the ethics arena of health care. Going forward, we hope to continue this tradition, and we invite you, the readers, to share your own ideas and experiences with our editorial advisory board and editor.]
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While federal regulations require that subjects be informed of the possible alternatives to their participation in a clinical trial, often subjects don't learn enough about those alternatives to make an informed decision, says a bioethicist who has studied the issue.
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Tufts University researchers studying immigrant workers in a nearby community engaged local leaders and teens to help them create a survey and recruit and translate for the immigrant population. It was an example of community-based participatory research (CBPR), involving the community from start to finish.
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Three institutions recently were honored by the Health Improvement Institute for their contributions to enhancing the protection of research subjects.
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The current system of regulating community-based participatory research (CBPR) doesn't truly engage or protect communities as it should and fails to follow up on promises made by researchers to IRBs and to those whom they study, says one community researcher.
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Some of the thorniest questions that IRBs face are those for which there are no clear-cut answers opinions may vary, arguments on both sides may be compelling, regulatory guidance may be scanty.
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When an institution conducts IRB reviews of hundreds of protocols, it can be hard to maintain consistency on such details as language used in informed consent to describe potential risks and adverse events.
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For more than 30 years, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project has collected copies of every consent form signed by the more than 130,000 patients enrolled in its clinical cooperative group trials.