The book succeeds in providing readers with an insight into a system that operates 'at complex intersections of science, politics, sociology, psychology, money and ethics'. Klitzman conveys how making human research safe is a difficult balancing act between the public's eagerness for treatments and the research community's propensity to respond.
Klaus Mitchell, Bionews.org.uk
In this intelligent, rigorous book, ... Read moreRobert Klitzman looks at the morality of morality-at how the bodies set up to protect research subjects can end up injuring us all. This examination of our confused notions of safety, honesty, and transparency demonstrates that none of these is simple, and that in striving toward any one, we easily betray the others. It is a book about how seeking to do the right thing can lead to justice, and about how equally often it fails to do so.
Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far From The Tree
Few institutions in America are as powerful and yet as invisible to the public as scientific Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). In this important, pioneering book, Robert Klitzman details the challenges facing IRBs today and offers concrete proposals about how they might function better tomorrow.
Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
In this intelligent, rigorous book, Robert Kiltzman looks at the morality of morality
at how the bodies set up to protect research subjects can end up injuring us all. This examination of our confused notions of safety, honesty, and transparency demonstrates that none of these is simple, and that in striving toward any one, we easily betray the others. It is a book about how seeking to do the right thing can lead to justice, and about how equally often it fails to do so.Daniel J. Kevles, Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University
Protection of participants is an important
and inescapablepart of the contemporary world of research. In this sensitive exploration of the groups charged with that task, Robert Klitzman elucidates the complexities of human subjects protection and the reasons why it so often seems less-than-optimal. If we are ever to do better, we must begin with precisely this sort of in-depth appreciation of the challenge of balancing the advance of knowledge with the protection of our fellow human beings.Paul S. Appelbaum, MD, Elizabeth K. Dollard, Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine & Law, Columbia University
Robert Klitzman has opened wide the door on the arcane world of institutional review boards (IRBs) and interviewed their members, chairpersons and administrators. He reports on what they think about their own power and performance and their influence on the conduct of research. Based on these perspectives, Klitzman makes the case that IRBs should be shifted to a more humanistic model that recognizes the complex psychological, social and cultural forces that influence their decisions. This is an important insight into this little understood but essential institution.
Robert J. Levine, MD, Yale University
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