Abstract:
Guidelines for clinical research and ethics committees are significant contributions
to decision made in science and law. But since research methods need
to follow the changes and the development of science, guidelines for clinical
research have to be continuously revised. Many innovations are perceived for
their intended beneficiaries as benefits. Unfortunately, this is not always true.
Therefore two issues should be mandatory in discussions of research ethics
committees: 1) What constitutes a harmful intervention? 2) What procedures
should be established for obtaining data and evaluating their relevance? These
questions are too broad and there are no ethical solutions that can leap off a
paper. But an example can be worked on. Dental caries is a public health challenge
in any country and chewing gum may have an effect with respect to
plaque reduction, at least in a short period of time. But sugar chewing gum
cannot be used as a positive control in biomedical researches. However, trials
referred herein allocated participants for a sugar chewing gum group. Therefore,
the aim of this critical review is to emphasize that such a procedure is an
example of a conscious disregard for the consideration which is due to trial
participants. Were these desirable researches themselves or they had other
purposes?
