HEALTH CARE ETHICAL CONCERNS

Evidence-based research can eliminate or minimize ethical concern in the healthcare industry through the use of the following approaches which are informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, respect, responsibility and privileged communication as the vital elements of ethics in research. Research ethics committee help to minimize ethical issues by promoting a better understanding of ethical concerns on medical research. The committee also ensures a comprehensive review of the research protocol, application, informed consent, patient information leaflet together with other supporting documents. It also monitors the conduct of approved research proposals, help in resolution, ensures accountability, quality assurance and is responsible for premature research termination. This helps to promote the moral and legal safety, welfare and integrity of the research subjects. Several ethic’s declaration and treaties assist in addressing the important principles of ethical conduct in biomedical research in efforts to show respect for human subjects’ autonomy as well as protecting them from harm. Nuremberg Code (1947) statements advocates for sufficient knowledge of the methods, purpose, inconveniences, nature, duration and the effects of the research regarding the voluntary consent. It also advocates that the research must be conducted by scientifically competent personnel and with a top level of care and skills. The research subjects are also permitted to bring the experiment to an end in case they reached a mental or physical state where continuous appears impossible. Declaration of Helsinki (1964) emphasized on scientific standards to govern scholarly research and allowed more freedom on regard to omission of the application of consent processes in the presence of exceptional circumstances to the physicians

The informed consent focuses on informing and protecting the research subject through discussion and disclosure of significant information to promote the subject understanding and make sure their decision to take part or continue are voluntary. The consent is given by a legally competent individual and signed consent must be presented where testing is conducted through a clinical genetic service. The research is performed in a manner that the DNA test will seek to respond to all the research question while not exposing the participants to unanticipated risks in the process. Upon receiving the informed consent, the participants are given the patient information sheet with proper details of all aspects of the study. Another key ethical issue is confidentiality where the researchers ensure that the information obtained is not disclosed except to only authorized individuals. Confidentiality concept also limits the researchers on how and where the information can be disclosed to the third party. The researchers are however only allowed to collect the relevant information as required in this case only the genetic information in efforts to protect the participant’s confidentiality. The researchers also ensure that the specimen collected from the participant meet the minimum standards of identification. The medical researchers also conduct patient counseling about genetic conditions that are connected to family health issues and where they are also at risk of a condition detected. The counseling is necessary since the current policies do not allow the revelation of confidential information by medical professionals but only under critical circumstances thus proper counseling enable the patient to inform the relatives of the issue. Genetics access testing is usually through clinical services like medical practitioners and clinical genetics. The Human Genetics Society of Australasia guidelines demands that children should only have presymptomatic testing only when the outcomes are required to help in the immediate future but not because the parents need to get informed. The ethical concern on child DNA test forbids the collection and storage of the DNA test on a symptomatic at-risk child for possible future use by the family or the child