Reference no: EM133033794

Read the article below. What ethical concerns are presented by conducting this experiment? Under what circumstances, if any, should this research be conducted? If this research was already conducted, is it ethical to use the results?

From June 2013 to January 2014, 70 individuals were recruited from 6 different clinical research studies (hereafter, "parent studies") being conducted in a single state Department of Correction (DOC). Of the parent studies, 3 were clinical trials for substance dependence (two for testing pharmacologic interventions for opioid dependence, 1 for testing of a community-reentry linkage intervention for alcohol dependence), 1 was a clinical trial testing a psychoeducational intervention for reducing HIV risk behaviors, 1 was a clinical trial testing group psychotherapy for major depression, and 1 was a non-trial study on the relationship between substance use and incarceration; all had enrolled participants during incarceration (either jail or prison). During the enrollment period, research staff from the parent studies informed their current study participants (English-speaking only) of the opportunity to learn about an ancillary study on prisoners' decision-making regarding enrollment in clinical research. Those who expressed interest were engaged in a separate informed consent discussion with the principal investigator (P.C.) of this study who had no role in any of the parent studies. Those who agreed to participate provided verbal and written informed consent. Typically, subjects were recruited within days to weeks of their enrollment in the parent study and prior to their release from incarceration. Citing confidentiality restrictions, the institutional review boards that approved the parent studies prohibited us from determining how many participants from the parent studies declined the offer to learn about our study. Among those who entered an informed consent discussion, however, only one chose not to participate. Prisoners were compensated twenty dollars for their participation in the ancillary study (from which the data in this paper were derived) in accordance with DOC policy. This study was approved by the institutional review board of Butler Hospital.