in whose interest?
TRANSCRIPT
CASE STUDIES
In Whose Interest?
Comment on “Toward a Sociology of Conflict of Interest in Medical Research”by Sarah Winch and Michael Sinnott
Linda Shields
Received: 19 January 2012 /Accepted: 13 February 2012 /Published online: 22 March 2012# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Keywords Research ethics . Researchgovernance . Conflict of interest . Risk
Winch and Sinnott’s (2011) case scenario presents anot uncommon dilemma faced by many researchers.As one who studies the medical experiment crimes atRavensbrück (Shields 2008), I hold a deep under-standing of the necessity for research ethics commit-tees, and I have written about how these can besubverted to satisfy personal agendas (Shields 2002).However, Winch and Sinnott have raised the spectre ofresearch governance—nowadays associated with re-search ethics, and probably important—but I contendthat this side of ethics administration is becoming ascumbersome as the ethics process itself, and I ask:Who gains from this? If protection of the subjects/participants is the raison d’être of research ethics
committees, who are the beneficiaries of research gover-nance committees? The whole process has taken on a“Yes, Minister” flavour, with the processes satisfying thebureaucrats, but leaving the participants largely unawareof research governance and certainly the researchers atrisk (and I use the word advisedly, consistent withWinchand Sinnott’s narrative) of hours, weeks, months of extrawork and delay of their projects. In fact, the delayillustrated in Winch and Sinnott’s scenario should be amajor concern for the research ethics committee, as oneof the requirements of ethical research is that it is com-pleted efficiently and within a reasonable time frame.
Ideas about what constitutes conflict of interesthave, as the scenario demonstrates, become so prob-lematic as to deter researchers from either being par-ticularly pedantic about what to declare (or not) orabandoning projects. While we all wish to protectour organizations, our potential participants, and our-selves, we may put ourselves more at risk by declaringpossible conflicts of interest because of the varied,inconsistent, and sometimes downright silly percep-tions surrounding them, as occurred with Dr. B. Butconflict of interest can be something from which hu-man research ethics committees (HREC) and researchgovernance committee members themselves suffer,and while hardworking and honest committee mem-bers declare them, there can be hidden conflicts thatsubtly affect the outcomes of decisions. In fact, if onedelved deeply enough into the lives of those who siton these committees, it would always be possible to
Bioethical Inquiry (2012) 9:219–220DOI 10.1007/s11673-012-9357-z
The original article by Sarah Winch and Michael Sinnott,published in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 8(4): 389–391,can be located at DOI 10.1007/s11673-011-9332-0.
L. ShieldsSchool of Medicine, The University of Queensland,Brisbane, Australia
L. Shields (*)School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University,GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australiae-mail: [email protected]
find some sort of conflict of interest. Should notHRECs and governance committees be made up ofpeople who are totally outside the organization? Onlythey could be completely independent. Then, shouldthey not be from different disciplines, perhaps outsidethe health area altogether? Perhaps they should not beresearchers at all, but people from off the street, withabsolutely no knowledge of health research? Thenagain, those people have a conflict of interest becausethey may benefit from the research under scrutiny. Iattest that all have a conflict of interest at some level,and the silly, useless, and downright obstruction illus-trated by Dr. B’s research governance experience def-initely inhibits good research practice, rather than
facilitates it. Nonetheless, I suppose all those bureau-crats have to be employed somehow!
References
Shields, L. 2002. The ethics of ethics committees. ABCRadio Ockham’s Razor, April 20. http://www.abc.ne-t.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/the-ethics-of-ethics-committees/3516754. Accessed January 19, 2012.
Shields, L. 2008. Nursing in Ravensbrück. Paper presented atthe Royal College of Nursing Annual International ResearchConference, April 8–11, in Liverpool, England.
Winch, S., and M. Sinnott. 2011. Toward a sociology of conflictof interest in medical research. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry8(4): 389–391.
220 Bioethical Inquiry (2012) 9:219–220