In research, humans serve as a source of information. It is the researcher’s obligation and responsibility to protect their rights. There are professional codes and policies that have been put into place to protect people’s health, dignity, privacy, integrity, autonomy, and confidentiality (Yip, Han, & Sng, 2016). One of these codes is known as The Nuremberg Code which calls for “voluntary consent”, a risk and benefits assessment, and assuring the use of competent researchers (Moreno, Schmidt, & Joffe, 2017). Informed consent is a major ethical issue in research. It is when a person knowingly, willingly, intelligently, and in a clear and evident way gives permission (Yip, Han, & Sng, 2016). Informed consent is used to protect the participant’s …show more content…
It refers to the Hippocratic "be of benefit, do not harm". Beauchamp and Childress, suggest that "the principle of beneficence includes the professional mandate to do effective and significant research so as to better serve and promote the welfare of our constituents (Yip, Han, & Sng, 2016)."
Confidentiality and anonymity are closely related to the principle of beneficence, respecting dignity, and commitment. The American Nurses Association states that anonymity is when a person’s responses can’t be linked to their identity (ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights , 2015). If a research is unable to promise anonymity then that researcher should address privacy, which is the management of information with the intent of protecting the participant’s identity (ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights , 2015).
Privacy is an individual’s right to determine when and under what circumstances their private information will be shared with or withheld from others. An invasion of privacy takes place when a person’s opinions or beliefs about something are shared without that person’s consent (Yip, Han, & Sng, 2016). In our current research setting and a growing dependence on technology, privacy is a very big challenge in modern