Ethics And Law Of Confidentiality

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3. To what lengths do researchers have to protect the confidentiality of its participants? In the course reading “Protecting Research Confidentiality “by Ted Palys and John Lowman, the article states that the importance of protecting a participant’s confidentiality in research could mean going up against legal measures that demands the disclosure of the participant’s personal info. For many researchers, having the moral courage to live up to what is promised to the participant, their confidentiality, is in most cases conflicting and produces an ethical dilemma. When research ethics and law of confidentiality conflicts, it is a practical problem that needs to be balanced in avoidance of violating both the ethics guidelines and the law. Moreover, it also an ethical dilemma between protecting the participants, and at the same time not protecting ethics through the mean of law violation. In my opinion, the lengths that a researcher needs to go to protect the confidentiality of the participant should surpass the law and should account for the full responsibility in keeping their identity safe against any legal measures. However, the only conditions that are exempted are when the participant shows tendencies to hurt themselves or other individuals. Other than this exemption, it would appear that the researcher actually has a huge burden to bear in the process of doing research. However, no matter how much responsibility, moral courage and ethical decisions that a research study demands for, it is still reasonable for a researcher to assume such a responsible position to protect what he/she is researching and the participants involved. This is because in the process of assisting in the researcher’s research, depending on the study, par... ... middle of paper ... ...expectations within the classroom and the conduct required of the student. This does not only mean that the student fully knows about the rules and consequences, but it also implicates the responsibility of this role onto the student. Therefore, the student is expected to behave in a certain way and if they choose not to, they will not be punished solely because they know better, but because of their responsibility. In conclusion, there is indeed a double standard placed on public officials in regards to misconduct. Despite voices that does not support the double standard, I however find it justifiable. What is equal is not always necessarily fair. It is important to take other factors such as the duty and responsibility that the individual is accounted for in consideration and how the decision they chose to make can have an effect on the people around them.

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