Postgraduate - UnitAPG4717 - Human research ethics

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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.

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12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

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

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Centre for Human Bioethics
Offered	Not offered in 2015
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

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

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 288 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.