What is the Value of a Timely Empirical Question?

Abstract

Ethical analysis in the human research enterprise often proceeds on the assumption that conceptual ethical analysis alone will suffice. Investigators, ethics committees and others usually agree on the relevant ethical principles, but may argue about what action should follow from those principles. Typically, the debate does not lead to the formulation of empirical questions that could result in elucidation of the problem and, perhaps, yield a solution agreeable to all. Without common ground for resolving these differences with an evidence-based solution, a discouraged investigator and a compromised research method may be the outcome. JERHRE has sought to remedy this situation through publication of empirical solutions, research agendas, editorials calling for various courses of empirical research, and through the first of many conferences seeking to promote evidence-based ethical problem solving. This special issue of JERHRE is devoted, in part, to the results of that first conference.