Research resulting in physical or emotional trauma for participants, without informed consent, is undoubtedly an ethical violation. However, other situations are not as clear. One of the reasons for debate about ethical issues is because ethics are opinions informed by people’s values, and people have different values. There may not be one definitive right answer. To get closer to an answer, though, researchers dialogue with themselves and submit their proposals to authorities such as IRBs and ethics committees for checks and balances.
