This is the final blog post concerning Ronald White's 2007 article in The Independent Review titled "Institutional Review Board Mission Creep: The Common Rule, Social Science, and the Nanny State." The concluding topic is the Conclusion: The Rise of the Nanny State section of the paper. The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger plans to meld these multiple posts into an op-ed and an academic essay.
White's penultimate paragraphs, like the Alternatives to IRBs section, are disappointing. He accurately details the scientific research problems caused by the rise of IRB culture (the "Nanny State") but does not provide a solution or solutions. The root solution, of course, is abolition of government-funded IRBs via abolition of the State.
Anecdotally, my experiences with hospital IRBs have been negative. The IRBs I have interacted with have been populated by overworked professionals with minimal knowledge concerning the proposed scientific research or the scientific method. The bulk of the work by these hospital IRBs was performed by administrative secretaries (bureaucrats), whose primary mission, reminiscent of Mussolini, appeared to be starting and stopping the meetings on time. Due to the quantity of protocols requiring IRB approval my IRB meeting appearances typically lasted for 5 minutes and consisted of me briefly answering a solitary arbitrary question. My research protocols were approved by the IRB if application forms were completed appropriately; revisions were requested if forms were not completed appropriately. All involved, except the administrative secretaries, viewed the IRB process as a colossal joke and understood that the primary reason for the existence of the hospital IRBs was to fulfill absurd State hospital regulations, not to protect research subjects from physical harm. Thus, my experiences anecdotally confirm White's negative IRB critique.
White's penultimate paragraphs, like the Alternatives to IRBs section, are disappointing. He accurately details the scientific research problems caused by the rise of IRB culture (the "Nanny State") but does not provide a solution or solutions. The root solution, of course, is abolition of government-funded IRBs via abolition of the State.
Anecdotally, my experiences with hospital IRBs have been negative. The IRBs I have interacted with have been populated by overworked professionals with minimal knowledge concerning the proposed scientific research or the scientific method. The bulk of the work by these hospital IRBs was performed by administrative secretaries (bureaucrats), whose primary mission, reminiscent of Mussolini, appeared to be starting and stopping the meetings on time. Due to the quantity of protocols requiring IRB approval my IRB meeting appearances typically lasted for 5 minutes and consisted of me briefly answering a solitary arbitrary question. My research protocols were approved by the IRB if application forms were completed appropriately; revisions were requested if forms were not completed appropriately. All involved, except the administrative secretaries, viewed the IRB process as a colossal joke and understood that the primary reason for the existence of the hospital IRBs was to fulfill absurd State hospital regulations, not to protect research subjects from physical harm. Thus, my experiences anecdotally confirm White's negative IRB critique.
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