Cited Podcast Episode #8: ‘The Ethics Police’
In this episode, we do headlines, learn what anthropologists mean by ‘thick description,’ and talk to Robert Klitzman about his new book on the internal review boards that look at research, ‘The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe.’
“There is no required training to be an IRB member. Anyone — you could be an IRB chair tomorrow! Nowhere does it say what the training is or should be. I was startled to learn that sometimes IRB members are volunteered. One women, when she got to her university, she was told everyone in the department is put on her committee, and her committee would be the IRB. And she said: what’s an IRB?’ So again you have, as one colleague put it, “well-meaning amateurs.”
Go to the Cited Podcast website for bibliography and more information.
