[Medical research and ethics. A questionnaire study among project leaders in the health region 4]

A questionnaire survey concerning attitudes to medical research ethics and the ethics committee was conducted among the 159 principal investigators whose protocols had been assessed by the regional ethics committee for biomedical research in the years 1986-92. Of the 119 respondents, 80% agreed that results of medical research can be misused and more than 60% that the public should have insight into and access to research results. More than half said it might be necessary to withhold results and that individual investigators should be able to do so to prevent misuse. Some 80% stated that ethical considerations had influenced their research, 12% that they would have had ethical scruples today about some of their previous projects and 60% that they currently emphasized ethical considerations more than they did in their earlier career. One in ten said they might have achieved better results if they could have paid less attention to ethics, while 45% would never publish studies of dubious ethical quality.