Title: Research or Services?
Author: Gerald P. Koocher and Patricia C. Keith-Spiegel, Children, Ethics, and the Law: Professional Issues and Cases, University of Nebraska Press, 1990. (originally appeared on www.emhr.net)
Description: Parents are told that if they enroll their babies in a research project, the babies will receive an EEG to look for signs of brain damage. Babies not enrolled will not receive this diagnostic test.
Keyword(s): Conflicts of Interest, Undue Influence, Voluntariness
Case: Babies who had febrile convulsions were recruited into a research project by the staff of a health maintenance organization. Parents were told that the babies would be given an EEG “to assure that brain damage had not occurred.” When a parent declined permission for the baby to be included in the research but requested that the EEG be performed, she was told that this would not be possible unless the baby was enrolled in the study.
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- Is it unethical for the babies to be enlisted into the research project on a compulsory basis? Why or why not?
- What might be some alternative research designs that could be considered?
- Do you think it is unethical to withhold the EEG from babies that are not enrolled in the study? Why or why not?
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