Necessity, Rights, and Rationing in Compulsory Research

In "Compulsory Research in Learning Health Care: Against a Minimal Risk Limit," Robert Steel offers an argument in favor of compelling individuals to participate in some research that poses more than minimal risk. In his view, the ethics of compulsory research turns on questions of fair distribution of benefits and burdens, within a paradigm analogous to health care resource rationing. We do not dispute that it may theoretically be permissible to compel participation in certain circumstances, including those that rise above minimal risk. Nevertheless, Steel's argument for this conclusion faces several challenges that ultimately render it unconvincing in its present form. First, compulsion should be subject to a "necessity" criterion, which substantially limits its applicable scope. Second, compulsion is a prima facie rights violation that requires stronger ethical justification than Steel offers. And third, substantial structural and motivational differences between rationing and compulsion render the analogy inapt.