Sample response

One ethical consideration in the biological approach is informed consent.  Informed consent means that before someone agrees to participate in a study, the researcher must explain the purpose and procedure of the study.  In addition, the researcher must explain the person’s rights – including the right to withdraw and that all data will be kept anonymous. Any potential negative effects of participation must be explained.

The biological approach has some special problems with regard to informed consent.  First, the biological approach uses animals which cannot actually give consent.  In addition, biological researchers often do studies of people who have mental illness or brain damage.  It could be argued that these participants may not be able to understand what they are agreeing to.  Finally, often biological research is rather complex and may not be understood by the average person, making “informed consent” difficult.

One study that raises questions about informed consent is the study of HM by Milner.  HM had severe amnesia as a result of an operation which was done to stop epileptic seizures.  HM had both retrograde amnesia (he couldn’t remember what happened before the operation) and he had anterograde amnesia (he couldn’t create new memories).  Milner carried out a case study and found that the hippocampus plays a key role in the transfer of episodic and semantic memories from short-term to long-term memory.

As HM could not remember giving consent, this study is ethically problematic.  HM was asked to give consent throughout the experiment, but it is not clear that he really understood what was happening or who Milner actually was.  Originally consent was given by HM’s mother and then later by his caretakers.   However, there is a concern that HM may not have been able to take advantage of his right to withdraw either because he did not understand or he forgot.   

Informed consent is important so that researchers do not take advantage of participants.  Many of the types of participants used in biological research make obtaining informed consent difficult.