Reasonable Risk

First, while reading the information for the IRB certification there was a phrase I found particularly interesting which referred to the responsibilities of the IRB board: "ensuring that risks to participants are reasonable in relationship to the potential benefits, if any, to participants and the importance of the knowledge that may reasonably be expected to result;". Similarly, a phrase in the A & A article read, "researchers are reminded that they must take into account subjects' rights to freedom from manipulation when weighing the potential benefits of the research role against the harms that could accrue." (389)

Who judges the degree of risk allowable by the potential benefits of a research project? If the potential benefits of the project does not directly affect the group of participants, does the potential benefits still outweigh the risks? For instance,the benefits of Humphreys' study resulting in his publishing the Tearoom Trade, include a better understanding of a particular group of individuals engaging in exclusive behaviors, normally hidden from, though judged by, the public. Does this generalization of an otherwise exclusive group in the eyes of academics outweigh the risks that come with exposure for the group involved? This phrasing that weighs risk against benefit bothers me more concerning biomedical research. However, when paired with the fail-safe of informed consent, I suppose we are not hading back to dangerous experimental research on humans (but I'm still nervous).

How does this type of wording affect the issue of public and private domain? If individuals choose to engage in behavior publicly which is generally thought to be of the private realm, doesn't that choice negate expectations of privacy? If an individual is funding their research by any means other than government funding, what institution ensures federal laws governing human participants in research are being followed? Are laws regarding human participants more rigorous among IRB's than federal law?

Second, when observation