Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-06T21:58:14.936Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Future of Empirical Research in Bioethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Jeremy Sugarman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Empirical research in bioethics can be defined as the application of research methods in the social sciences (such as anthropology, epidemiology, psychology, and sociology) to the direct examination of issues in [bioethics]. As such, empirical work is a form of descriptive ethics, focused on describing a particular state of affairs that has some moral or ethical relevance. For example, empirical research can help to describe cultural beliefs about the appropriateness of providing health-related information, such as the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, which informs deliberations about the extent to which it is morally important for clinicians to provide comprehensive information to patients in different cultural contexts. Similarly, empirical research can delineate popular attitudes and experiences related to contentious issues such as abortion, cloning, stem-cell research, and physician-assisted suicide to enlighten discussions and policy formulations regarding them.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 2004 , pp. 226 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Sugarman, J. Sulmasy, D.P., eds. Methods in Medical Ethics (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001) at 20.Google Scholar
Sugarman, J. Faden, R.R. Weinstein, J., “A Decade of Empirical Research in Bioethics” in Sugarman, Sulmasy, , supra note 1, at Chapter 2, 19–28.Google Scholar
Sugarman, Faden, Weinstein, , supra note 2.Google Scholar
Sugarman, J. McCrory, D.C. Hubal, R.C., “Getting Meaningful Informed Consent from Older Persons: A Structured Literature Review of Empirical Research,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 46 (1998): 517–524; Sugarman, J. McCrory, D.C. Powell, D. Krasny, A. Adams, B. Ball, E. Cassell, C., “Empirical Research on Informed Consent,” Hastings Center Report 29 (1999): S1–S42.Google Scholar
Sugarman, Sulmasy, , supra note 1.Google Scholar
Sugarman, Sulmasy, , supra note 1.Google Scholar
Sulmasy, D. P., “Research in Medical Ethics: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” in Sugarman, Sulmasy, , supra note1, at Chapter 14, 247–266; Henderson, G. E., “Research in Medical Ethics: Genetic Diagnosis,” Sugarman, Sulmasy, , supra note1, at Chapter 15, 267–285.Google Scholar
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments - Stock number 061-000-00-848-9, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1995).Google Scholar
Advisory Committee, supra note 7, at Chapter 15.Google Scholar
Advisory Committee, supra note 7, at Chapter 16.Google Scholar
Advisory Committee, supra note 7.Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health, Research on Ethical Issues in Human Studies (PA-99-079). Available at: <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-99-079.html> (last visited March 18, 2004).+(last+visited+March+18,+2004).>Google Scholar
Sugarman, J. Reisner, E.G. Kurtzberg, J., “Ethical Aspects of Banking Placental Blood for Transplantation,” JAMA 274 (1995): 1783–1785; Sugarman, J. Kaalund, V. et al. , “Ethical Issues in Umbilical Cord Blood Banking,” JAMA 278 (1997): 938–943; Haley, R. Harvath, L. Sugarman, J., “Conference Report: Ethical Issues in Cord Blood Banking Workshop” Transfusion 38 (1998): 867–873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugarman, J. Kaplan, L. Cogswell, B. Olson, J., “Pregnant Women's Perspectives on Umbilical Cord Blood Banking,” Journal of Women’s Health 7 (1998): 747–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugarman, J. Kurtzberg, J. Box, T.L. Horner, R.D., “Optimizing Informed Consent for Umbilical Cord Blood Banking”, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 187 (2002): 1642–1646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugarman, J., ed. Ethics in Primary Care (New York: McGraw Hill, 2000).Google Scholar
Lavori, P. W. Sugarman, J. Hays, M.T. Feussner, J. R., “Improving Informed Consent in Clinical Trials: A Duty to Experiment,” Controlled Clinical Trials 20 (1999): 187–193; Sugarman, J., “Determining the Appropriateness of Including Children in Clinical Research: How Thick is the Ice?” JAMA 291 (2004): 494–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar