Back to Search
Start Over
Secondary use of empirical research data in medical ethics papers on gamete donation: forms of use and pitfalls
- Source :
- Monash Bioethics Review. 33:64-77
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2015.
-
Abstract
- This paper aims to provide a description of how authors publishing in medical ethics journals have made use of empirical research data in papers on the topic of gamete or embryo donation by means of references to studies conducted by others (secondary use). Rather than making a direct contribution to the theoretical methodological literature about the role empirical research data could play or should play in ethics studies, the focus is on the particular uses of these data and the problems that can be encountered with this use. In the selection of papers examined, apart from being used to describe the context, empirical evidence was mainly used to recount problems that needed solving. Few of the authors looked critically at the quality of the studies they quoted, and several instances were found of empirical data being used poorly or inappropriately. This study provides some initial baseline evidence that shows empirical data, in the form of references to studies, are sometimes being used in inappropriate ways. This suggests that medical ethicists should be more concerned about the quality of the empirical data selected, the appropriateness of the choice for a particular type of data (from a particular type of study) and the correct integration of this evidence in sound argumentation. Given that empirical data can be misused also when merely cited instead of reported, it may be worthwhile to explore good practice requirements for this type of use of empirical data in medical ethics.
- Subjects :
- Oocyte Donation
Descriptive statistics
Management science
media_common.quotation_subject
Context (language use)
General Medicine
Bioethics
Empirical Research
Argumentation theory
Empirical research
Humans
Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous
Ethics, Medical
Quality (business)
Engineering ethics
Empirical evidence
Psychology
Medical ethics
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18366716 and 13212753
- Volume :
- 33
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Monash Bioethics Review
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c47415fde34968c3f801891d403ead99