Referencing the site: http://www.unmc.edu/irb/ as an example, discuss what role Institutional Review Boards play in ensuring ethical conduct in your field of study. Then, review your college/university’s IRB website, and discuss the IRB process.
Review the following site: http://sepp.udel.edu/research by the University of Delaware’s Center for Science, Ethics & Public Policy. Afterward, discuss how research informs public policy and decision making. What are specific examples of research projects you are able to identify, which have had an effect on the policy process? Also remember to discuss what barriers research faces in influencing policy (see pp. 508-510 in chapter 16).
After reviewing the site: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/hs/index.htm, discuss how you would go about ensuring the ethical treatment of participants for a study that you may want to conduct in your field of study (describe your topic and research design in one page). In particular, what attention would you pay to ideas like informed consent, beneficence, and minimizing harm to participants? How would your study be designed around these considerations?
