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Ethics And Human Decision Making

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A question that comes up often about research or plans are the ethics of obtaining such research or plans. Though what is meant when people discuss the ethics of research. Ethics is a series of principles that help guide more human moral behavior. So in short when ethics is discussed about research it is talking about the moral and human decision making when doing research. Though how do we question if something is ethical or not? This question is answered by the six principles of ethics, Respect for Autonomy, Nonmaleficence, Beneficence, Justice, Fidelity and Veracity. Following these six principles gives a more concrete definition on what being ethical means. The first of the six principles of ethics is Respect for Autonomy. What is exactly meant by respect for autonomy? Autonomy represents the capacity for human self determination and the ability for humans to make their own decisions. This means that it is not ethical for a participant of an experiment to have a lack of control over their own actions. However to be truly autonomous the person who the experiment is being done on must be free of undue influence either through ignorance,threat of violence, coercion and etc. While an experimenter can mean well by not forcing a test subject to do a certain action, a limited amount of choices can also mean a lack of autonomy. While these concerns about autonomy may make an experiment seem limited it not only helps the experiment become more ethical, but a more true answer

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