High impact information on Ethics Committees

• METHOD: The author, a member of the APA Ethics Committee, reviewed informal records kept by her during a period of just under 5 years [1].
• INTERVENTION(S): An IVF ethics committee was formed to discuss the ethical and policy issues involved in starting an embryo donation program and to establish program guidelines [2].
• METHODS: After ethics committee approval, 11 women with PCOS and 12 controls were recruited (mean age, 32; SD, 6.5 years; mean body mass index (BMI), 33.1; SD, 5.9 kg/m2) [3].
• METHODS: Following ethics committee approval and informed consent, 21 male adults received 60 mL ropivacaine 0.5% (without vasoconstrictor) [4].
• METHODS: After ethics committee approval and written informed consent, 20 ASA I or II patients were randomly allocated to receive either desflurane (n=10) or isoflurane (n=10), in O2/ N2O (1:1) for maintenance of anaesthesia [5].

Biological context of Ethics Committees

• SETTING: This single investigation was conducted in the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at a university in Germany. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the hospital, and informed consent was obtained [6].

Associations of Ethics Committees with chemical compounds

• With the approval of the District Ethics Committee 7 of those patients were rechallenged with metipranolol 0.3% compared to timolol maleate 0.5% in a double blind trial [7].
• METHODS: With ethics committee approval, blood was withdrawn from 35 healthy volunteers and incubated (1 h) either with 0 microg/ml, 0.0156 microg/ml, 0.0625 microg/ml or 0.5 microg/ml of etomidate as well as with its additives (propylene glycol and Lipofundin MCT 10%) [8].
• After ethics committee approval, 51 consenting ASA physical status 1 or 2 adult patients were given basal flow sevoflurane anaesthesia using fresh gas flows of 150 to 300 ml x min(-1) oxygen [9].
• Ethics committees under Texas law: effects of the Texas Advance Directives Act [10].
• The study was terminated after 17 subjects, on agreement with the local ethics committee, due to concern with the poor Apgar scores in the pethidine group [11].

Gene context of Ethics Committees

• Ethics Committee report, Part 2: The Nuremberg Code [12].
• Any research involving, amongst other issues, patients, NHS staff and use or access to NHS premises may require ethics committee approval [13].
• Today's ethics committees face varied issues. A CHA survey reveals committees' functions, authority, and structure [14].
• In the spring of 2003, the board of directors of the American Pain Society asked the APS Ethics Committee to formulate a position statement for the Society concerning the use of placebos in clinical practice (cf, reference ) [15].
• Do ethics committees work? Yes [16].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Ethics Committees

• Sex selection and preimplantation diagnosis: a response to the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine [17].
• Clinics that provide assisted reproductive technology (ART) are guided by general guidelines set forth by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and its Ethics Committee and are free to set their own policies within those guidelines [18].

References