The Duty to Look for Incidental Findings in Imaging Research

Abstract

Imaging research regularly yields incidental findings that may have personal medical or reproductive decision-making significance to study participants. It is widely assumed that researchers have a moral obligation to disclose at least some kinds of incidental findings to research participants. However, it is also a widely held view that researchers do not have a moral obligation to actively look for abnormalities irrelevant to the aims of their study. This paper challenges that assumption.