The criminalization of behaviors such as the ingestion of certain mood-altering drugs creates a number of unusual and difficult ethical dilemmas for researchers trying to study and understand those behaviors. The Syringe Access, Use, and Discard (SAUD) research project is designed to uncover micro-contextual factors that influence the behaviors of injection drug users at risk for contracting HIV and hepatitis. The presentation will describe seven case studies of ethical dilemmas encountered during the course of data collection using ethnographic field methods: issues involving the recovery and replacement of syringes at injection locales; the risks of arrest for the participants; potential disruptions in normal supply routes due to participation in the research; the risks of arrest for the research staff; threats to the protection of the confidentiality of the subjects; issues surrounding informed consent in working with people suffering an addiction; and, the confiscation of potentially incriminating information by the police. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the limitations of traditional ethical frameworks, such as utilitarianism, for resolving these dilemmas and recommends instead improving public health professionals’ capacity for practical reasoning (phronesis) through the greater use of case studies in public health curricula.
Learning Objectives: To present case studies of ethical dilemmas encountered during the conduct of field research in order to refine the participants' capacity for practical moral reasoning
Keywords: Ethics, Research Ethics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.