Re-Evaluating Risks and Benefits in Human Subjects Research
By Jonathan Kahn, Biopolitical Times guest contributor
| 05. 25. 2011
Modern bioethics is grounded in four basic principles: respect for persons (i.e. autonomy), beneficence, nonmalificence and justice. In a recent presentation at the 2011 ELSI Congress, "Exploring the ELSI Universe," Malia Fullerton, a professor in the Department of Bioethics & Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine, noted that "respect for persons" and "beneficence" have come to be the preeminent values in bioethical review of human subjects studies, particularly in the context of IRB review. Respect for persons typically manifests in a concern for informed consent, and beneficence in a concern for weighing the potential harms and benefits of research. Fullerton argued that a more balanced consideration of the other values, particularly justice and a concern for persons not just in terms of consent but in terms of dignity, needed to be incorporated into such review.
This got me to thinking about these concepts and their deployment in current biomedical research. Beneficence has often been cast in terms of balancing costs and benefits, as though it were simply a utilitarian calculus. However, in the context of...
Related Articles
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 06.04.2026
Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the...
Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress the “moral and educational perspective” of the Games. The folks who paid for or participated in the Enhanced Games – the name itself a nod to the Olympics – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 24, apparently use a different edit:
Faster, Higher, Stronger with Chemistry
High-level sport draws huge crowds. Coming very soon, the soccer World Cup, featuring...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 05.25.2026
In a small, preliminary study, an experimental gene-editing treatment dramatically lowered cholesterol levels, perhaps permanently, after just one infusion, scientists reported on Monday.
If confirmed in larger studies, researchers hope the findings may lead to a one-and-done way to prevent...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoint News | 05.20.2026
BOSTON — Over the past year, I’ve begun hearing rumblings from scientists who secretly think it’s time to stop being stodgy about editing the genes of human embryos.
For the most part, they are still too timid to speak up...
