Research ethics is an important principle that should guide researchers when it comes to conducting their research. Among the participants of the research are vulnerable populations who are at risk of being misused due to their condition (Vayena and Kahn, 2012). These people may be at risk of experiencing unjustified influence as well as coercion. An ethical issue that researchers may face in conducting public health research is undue consent due to the condition of the population. Any researcher must obtain justified consent from any participant before being a subject of research. Denying potential benefits to the vulnerable population is an ethical issue due to concerns about their ability to consent. Another issue is the identity protection of the participants. The identity of the vulnerable population must be protected and maintain anonymity or confidentiality agreed upon consent. In addition, researchers may face an ethical issue when it comes to getting approval to conduct research in areas with vulnerable populations. The potentially vulnerable groups who are at risk of participating in unjust research include minors, individuals in prisons, those who are economically disadvantaged, homeless, individuals with HIV as well as those with mental illness (Wilson and Neville, 2009). Their domains can be organized into three terms physical, psychological, and social. These groups are mainly vulnerable because it might seem easy for them to consent as well as their lack of ability to fight coercion. For instance, minors may be coerced to participate in health research without fully understanding what it entails (Wilson and Neville, 2009). On the other hand, some groups such as prisoners and the economically disadvantaged may have the mentality that they will be rewarded after participating in research. In addition, researchers may have the mentality of not including them in research on the grounds that they are vulnerable or that it may be complex to obtain their approval. In order to ensure equity, strategies must be installed so that all groups are treated the same without discrimination. The first strategy is to promote standards of equity before the researchers start their surveys (Dye, Reeder & Terry, 2013). This strategy would ensure that researchers have a responsibility of conducting research without discrimination. Institutional changes, as well as individual measures, would work to instill this factor in young researchers before they go to the field. Additionally, researchers should only conduct research in a controlled manner such that all the regions receive equal attention regardless of the kind of population present. This could be done by conducting an analysis of gender, vulnerable populations as well as minority groups. This would ensure that researchers are distributed equally. In order to prevent potential human rights violations, mandatory training should be done for both the researchers and the participants so that each can know their rights before participation (Mann, 2011). When such training is done, participants especially those who are vulnerable will learn about their rights and what could be done in case they are violated. Additionally, the participants should be encouraged to report any cases of human rights violations since they already know their rights. Individuals should also learn to protect the rights of others. This has worked in different places which results in the reduction of human violations since people protect each other even by reporting the cases of violations to international organizations or to the representatives. Lastly, in case of human rights violation, it is the duty of the affected party to follow up on the case to ensure that the violator has gotten due punishment.
References
Dye, C., Reeder, J. C., & Terry, R. F. (2013). Research for universal health coverage.
Mann, J. (2011). Health and human rights. American journal of public health .
Vayena, E., Mastroianni, A., & Kahn, J. (2012). Ethical issues in health research with novel online sources. American Journal of Public Health , 102 (12), 2225-2230.
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Wilson, D., & Neville, S. (2009). Culturally safe research with vulnerable populations. Contemporary Nurse , 33 (1), 69-79.
