This article discusses ethical issues which are raised as a result of the introduction of economic evidence in mental health care in order to rationalise clinical practice. Cost effectiveness studies and guidelines based on such studies are often seen as impartial, neutral instruments which try to reduce the influence of non-scientific factors. However, such rationalising instruments often hide...

Considering the nature of qualitative studies, the interaction between researchers and participants can be ethically challenging for the former, as they are personally involved in different stages of the study. Therefore, formulation of specific ethical guidelines in this respect seems to be essential. The present paper aimed to discuss the necessity to develop explicit guidelines for conductin...

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The authors appreciate the editorial comments by Wijdicks and Smith and would like to address concerns about why the diagnosis of brain death in pediatric patients has to be ‘‘so complicated.’’ This revised clinical guideline focused specifically on determining brain death and deliberately excluded issues related to ethical concerns and organ donation. Failure to mention the Child Neurology Soc...

In April 2002 the Nuffield Council on Bioethics published the Report The Ethics of Research Related to Healthcare in Developing Countries. It provides an ethical framework for those designing or conducting healthcarerelated research in developing countries. This paper will draw on the conclusions made in the Report, and present some of the recommendations. It will cover the importance of genuin...

This article attempts to define terminology and to describe a process for writing adaptive, early phase study protocols which are transparent, self-intuitive and uniform. It provides a step by step guide, giving templates from projects which received regulatory authorisation and were successfully performed in the UK. During adaptive studies evolving data is used to modify the trial design and c...

Does research on gender-based violence (GBV) pose greater than minimal risk to researchers and participants? This question needs to be understood particularly in light of hesitancy by Institutional Review Boards to approve research on GBV. The safety and risks of doing GBV studies and the implications for the ethical review process have not been a focus of much research. This qualitative study ...