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Conflict of interest: Legal and ethical aspects
Author(s) -
Dickens B.M.,
Cook R.J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijgo.2005.11.002
Subject(s) - conflict of interest , fiduciary , self interest , payment , law and economics , public interest , medicine , law , public relations , political science , business , economics , finance , duty
Conflicts of interest arise when those who owe conscientious duties to others appear to have personal interests that might tempt them to subordinate those duties to their self‐interest. Conflicts of interest are distinguishable from conflicts of commitment, which arise when individuals bear two or more mutually exclusive duties to others. If persons in conflicts of interest favor their self‐interest, they may violate binding legal duties such as fiduciary duties. Conflicts arise when, for instance, medical practitioners refer their patients to other practitioners in exchange for payments (fee splitting), and when they gain secondary incomes such as from testing patients' samples in laboratories in which they hold ownership or investment interests. Financial dealings with commercial sponsors may place researchers in apparent conflicts of interest with research subjects. When conflicts of interest are unavoidable, they may be resolved by appropriate disclosure.