Chapter 2:
Research Ethics and Informed Consent
Multiple Choice Questions
1) Genuine deliberation requires
a) only information.
b) only understanding.
c) both information and understanding.
d) information, understanding, and autonomy.
2) Since her parents could not afford either a transplant or the Norwood procedure (alternative
correctional surgery) the case of Baby Fae raised issues about
a) commercial surrogacy.
b) informed consent.
c) commercial medicine.
d) euthanasia.
3) The basic requirement that must be met for an experiment to be morally legitimate is that
a) the experiment must be beneficial to the subject.
b) the experiment must be beneficial to mankind.
c) the subject must have given informed consent to be involved.
d) the experiment must be legally permissible.
4) Which of the following is or are true of a placebo?
a) Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials.
b) Placebos contain the currently most effective treatment for a condition.
c) Participants who receive a placebo during a trial know that they are receiving a placebo.
d) all of these choices
5) One problem with many medical trials going unpublished is that this situation could result in
a) false positive results.
b) false negative results.
c) selection bias.
d) the increased use of placebos.
6) The autonomy of prisoners could be compromised by which of the following?
a) The offer of monetary inducements to participate in research
b) The offer of non-monetary inducements to participate in research
c) Their incarceration
d) All of these choices
7) Eugene Passamani believes that the ethical difficulties surrounding randomized clinical trials
can be overcome if which of the following conditions is met?
a) Participants give informed consent.
b) A state of clinical equipoise exists.
c) The trial is designed as a test of therapeutic alternatives.
d) All of these choices
8) Peter Singer believes that the major health problems in the world continue to exist
predominantly as the result of which fact or facts?
a) No one is putting enough effort and money into enacting the treatments and prevention
measures that we already know how to do.
b) We do not know how to properly prevent diseases and keep people healthy.
c) We do not conduct enough testing with animals.
d) All of these choices
9) Valid consent requires that we deliberate before we decide, and genuine deliberations require
which of the following?
a) information and understanding
b) information only
c) understanding only
d) neither; merely saying yes to participation is sufficient
9) Peter Singer argued that our willingness to tolerate animal experiments can be explained by
a) their effectiveness.
b) their cheapness.
c) our racism.
d) our speciesism.
10) Which of the following is true of Phase I clinical trials?
a) They are designed to determine dosage, toxicity, and side effects.
b) They rely solely on animals as test subjects.
c) They are not required by the FDA.
d) They are the last stage of clinical testing.
11) According to Roman Catholicism,
a) all fetal research is forbidden.
b) the fetus is a person.
c) research involving fetal tissue is prohibited.
d) research involving fetal remains is prohibited.
12) The Nuremberg Code arose in response to which event?
a) The Nazi experiments conducted during WWII
b) The Tuskegee Experiments
c) The Willowbrook Experiments
d) The Regimen 076 study
13) Which of the following are considered vulnerable populations?
a) Children
b) Prisoners
c) The mentally impaired and people suffering from mental illnesses
d) all of these choices
14) Just as one sex has served as the standard for biomedical research, so has
a) one form of placebo.
b) one form of sexuality.
c) one form of treatment.
d) one form of race.
15) Clinical Equipoise is:
a) a term denoting the fact that of two or more treatment options, no one of them has been
established clearly superior to another.
b) a rare disease.
c) a specific type of Phase I Clinical Trial.
d) when physicians clearly recognize that one type of therapy is vastly superior to
alternative therapies.
True/False Questions
1) The aim of Abigail Alliance was to change FDA policies to give terminally ill patients easier
access to investigational drugs that might benefit them.
2) Researchers at the Willowbrook State School in New York deliberately infected children with
hepatitis during the course of their experiments.
3) Double-blind test designs are intended to rule out the influence of the expectations of
researchers and patients.
4) The notion of informed consent is a recognition of individual autonomy.
5) The requirement that a person must consent to be in a medical trial can be satisfied by her
simply agreeing to be in a medical trial.
6) The related but distinct aims of medical research and therapy are a source of conflict in human
experimentation.
7) The majority of medical research projects offer clear benefits to those who consent to be
subjects in them.
8) Educated and wealthy persons are equally as likely to become research subjects as the
uneducated and poor.
9) The majority of Phase III clinical trials sponsored by drug companies are carried out in the
United States.
10) Tom Regan argues that animals have a form of autonomy since they have preferences.
11) Paul Ramsey believes that it may be morally legitimate to use captive populations of children
in research studies.
12) Hans Jonas believes that it is inherently wrong to force an individual to sacrifice him/herself
to a social goal.
13) According to Peter Singer, there never has been and never could be a single experiment that
saved thousands of lives.
14) Peter Singer believes that speciesism is essential to right conduct.
15) Carl Cohen believes that animals are the sort of beings that can possess rights and, because
of that, we cannot morally sacrifice their interests for the welfare of others.