Yailin Torres Artola

EDP3273.004F15
September 6, 2015
NIH Ethics Paper
After finishing this Ethics training course, I realized that as a current scholar and future
educator the importance of protecting human research participants. I gained so much knowledge
about this topic that I never imagined would be so critically important. As an educator I will be
researching children at one point or another in my career, and it is really important for me to
become familiarized with these policies.
So the history of this all began when one of the most horrific studies occurred in
Alabama from 1930-1970. This study was named the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, in this study
human rights were violated, it even lead to the deaths of some of the participants. The study was
done on 400 male participants that had Syphilis and 200 who didnt have the disease. The 400
participants with Syphilis were left without treatment for a long period of time with this
eventually leading to their deaths. As you can see in this experiment, human rights were not
taken into consideration. It is so sad that people had to lose their lives because of uneducated and
irresponsible researchers. After this occurred the Department of Health and Human Services also
known as HHS created a new policy for the protection of human research participants.
A policy that I found relevant to me as a future educator is when researching a student I
have the obligation to give them an Informed Consent, and since they are still children they are
also entitled to the Belmont Principle of respect for persons. By giving these forms to the
participants you are informing them and their parents of any risks or benefits of the research, and

they can acknowledge if they want to still participate in the research. It is important as well to
remember that the Informed Consent is not just a consent you sign once but it is an ongoing
process that the researcher needs to keep the participant updated on. Also before starting any
study the researcher by obligation must decide if the study is going to benefices the child. It is
really important when conducting any research that one looks if the benefits are greater than the
risks, this term is called the Belmont Principle of Beneficences.
While Im out in the field conducting my case studies it is important for me to understand
and follow these policies. For example if in the future I participate in a research where students
who have ADHD are being compared to those who also have ADHD but are taking medications
it is critical for me as a good researcher to have an Inform Consent for the parents. There are
different ways an Inform Consent can be given, a way that I found very helpful is by giving a
detailed presentation about the study and the benefits and risk that the study will have on the
child. As a responsible researcher it is also essential that the group of students you are working
with are being treated equally and equitably. Although these terms may sound like the same thing
they are not equally means that the group of people are being treated exactly the same and
equitably means that the group of people are being treated fairly. The NIH Policy and Guidelines
on the Inclusion of Children as Participants in Research Involving Human Subjects also pertains
to children. It is important for you as a researcher to make sure that the treatment being provided
for the child is safe and effective.
In conclusion to this I learned so much by taking this NIH training assessment. All this
information is very significant to me. I am now a more prepared scholar and hope to use all these
fundamental policies in my future studies.