Ethics vs. Safety

[rkathren@tricity.WSU.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

Mark Hanlon has raised an interesting ethical question, which I myself have
pondered at considerable length, even to the extent of presenting a paper in
1996 at the IRPA meeting in Vienna entitled:  Human Radiation
Experimentation:  A Health Physics Perspective   which briefly considers a
problem such as posed by Mark.  (If you do not have a copy of the IRPA
Proceedings and wish a reprint of the paper, please let me know by return
e-mail and I'll send one out.)  The basic conclusion was that we as HP's
have a professional as well as a personal obligation to ensure that
humanitarian requirements, including fully informed and willing subjects,
are met, and moreover we must be [personally] convinced that the real or
potential benefits outweigh the potential detriment and risk.  The various
parameters that we might use to develop our conclusion will differ from
person to person, as might the final conclusion; clearly much more than LNT
or risk considerations enter into the equation, including many
unquantifiable and intangible parameters.

Ron Kathren 

   At 11:50 AM 2/19/99 -0600, Ron Morgan wrote:
>On Sat, 20 Feb 1999 Mark Hanlon wrote (in part):
> 
>I have to comment on a research protocol which proposes to
>subject normal healthy minors to three 20 minute scans within 24
>hours. Subjects are given a pre-sacn questionnaire in order to
>identify some conditions which would contra-indicate MRI.
>
>I think this is an ethical issue, not a safety issue.
>
>I guess I don't understand the distinction between ethics issues and safety
>issues in this case (ethics and safety are siamese twins for safety
>professionals, in my opinion).  If the MRSs (MRIs?) won't harm the kids
>(assuming they're volunteers), how would it be an ethical issue?  The
>absence of a safety issue, in my mind, drives the ethical issues to zero
>(again, assuming they volunteer).  It seems to me that we're back to LNT.
>Will three closely-spaced MRS(I?)s harm a child? LNT says yes, therefore it
>IS a safety issue...Reject LNT, and decide for yourself if it's a safety
>issue (based, perhaps, on a threshold?).
>
>Comments?    ron
>
>*********************************************
>   Ron Morgan
>   Radiation Protection Services (ESH-12)
>   Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS K-483
>   Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87544 (USA)
>   Phone (505) 665-7843
>   FAX   (505) 667-9726
>   Mailto:rgmorgan@lanl.gov
>*********************************************
>************************************************************************
>The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
>information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
>

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html