Breaching Medical Ethics in Research

Implication for health policy makers/practice/research/medical education: This editorial emphasizes the importance of abiding by universal protocols of medical ethics when undertaking clinical research. As a researcher with several affiliations and commitments , I am often asked to assess clinical research studies , and approve student dissertation proposals prior to their initiation. One of the most common issues of concern which I often come across, is an unethical research methodology, that if conducted, would breach medical ethics in one way or another. This issue goes to show that the subject of medical ethics is often either misconstrued , downplayed, or ignored by students contemplating research in the medical field. We as physicians, are obligated to abide by and uphold ethical values and to relay them to our students. It is imperative that students contemplating clinical research, consider all aspects of medical ethics, both in their proposals and study design. They should be aware of what medical ethics is and what exactly constitutes a breach of medical ethics. Medical ethics is defined as a system of moral principles that bring values and judgement to the practice of medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses practical application in clinical settings. Historically, Western medical ethics may be traced to guidelines relating to the duty of physicians that were formulated in antiquity, such as the Hippocratic Oath, and early religious teachings. The first code of medical ethics, 'Formula Comitis Archiatrorum', was published in the 5th century during the reign of the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric the Great. In the medieval and early modern period the issue of ethics is attributed to scholars of Mus-lim medicine, such as Ishaq ibn Ali al-Ruhawi (who wrote 'Conduct of a Physician', the first book dedicated to medical ethics), and Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (known as Rhazes in the West), as well as other philosophers, such as Maimonides, Roman Catholic scholastic thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and case-oriented analysts (casuistry) of Catholic moral theology. These intellectual traditions were propagated and incorporated in Catholic, Islamic and Jewish medical ethics. By the 18th and 19th centuries, medical ethics had emerged as a more self-conscious discourse. In England, Thomas Percival, a physician and author , established the first modern code of medical ethics. He drafted a pamphlet with the medical code in 1794 and wrote an expanded version in 1803; he also coined the terms, 'medical ethics' and 'medical jurisprudence' (1). The human rights …