Ethical considerations in clinical trials

Abstract

Ethics is no longer the privileged domain of a few academicians, nor of Institutional Review Boards/Ethics Review Committees (IRBs/ERCs) overseeing clinical trials. Ethical considerations impacting multiple aspects of the conduct of research are central to clinical research. As a result, there are ethical dimensions to every aspect of clinical research. This article results from a session at the 2003 Society of Quality Assurance (SQA) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, USA. This summary of the ethical and public policy-related underpinnings for our comments during the session should benefit those who were unable to attend the session as well as to provide further perspectives for those who participated in the discussion. Copyright © 2004 Wiley & Sons, Ltd.