Postgraduate - UnitAPR5617 - Human research ethics

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

0 points, SCA Band 1, 0.000 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Centre for Human Bioethics
Offered	Not offered in 2014
Coordinator(s)	Dr Peter Douglas

Synopsis

This unit focuses on the full range of ethical issues that arise in research involving humans, including medical, scientific and social research. It covers topics such as acceptable and unacceptable risks to research participants, conflicts of interest, informed consent and waiver of consent, surrogate decision making, biobanks, commercialization of medical and scientific research, and research conducted on vulnerable people. Throughout the unit use will be made of case studies, ethical frameworks and principles, and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. Participants will have ample opportunity to discuss their own experiences with human research ethics.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students will be able to:

obtain a comprehensive grasp of the full range of ethical issues that can arise with research involving humans;
understand the ethical frameworks and principles relevant to human research;
be able to use ethical principles and reasoning to arrive at well-argued conclusions about particular ethical dilemmas in human research;
obtain a thorough understanding of The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and how it is applied in concrete cases;
obtain a good understanding of international guidelines on human research ethics;
critically engage with the bioethical literature around the ethics of research involving humans and construct arguments for novel conclusions in relation to that literature.