Ethical Framework

ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH INTO
ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS: AN ISSUES
PAPER EXPLORING THE NEED FOR A
GUIDANCE FRAMEWORK
‘An ethical framework is a set of ethical principles capable of being applied consistently and designed to guide our response to a particular problem or set of problems… an ethical framework dictates not what is to be done, but what factors should be considered in deciding what is to be done.’ 2

2 Chan, S., & Harris J. (2007). Nuffield Council on Bioethics: An ethical review of publications (p. 7). Accessed on 20

April 2011 from: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/

Contents
Section 1 Introduction

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1.1 Purpose

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1.2 Exclusions

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1.3 The National Drug Strategy 2010-2015
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3.2.5

Affiliating with antisocial peers using AOD is one of the strongest predictors of adolescent alcohol and other drug use13 and operates independently of individual and family risk factors.21, 13

12

Anthony. J. C. (2006). The epidemiology of cannabis dependence. In: Roffman. R. A., & Stephens. R. S. (Eds.)

Cannabis dependence: Its nature, consequences and treatment (pp. 58-105). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fergusson. D. M., Boden. J. M., & Horwood. L. J. (2008). The developmental antecedents of illicit drug use:
Evidence from a 25 year longitudinal study. Drug Alcohol Depend, 96, 167-77.
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Lascala. E., Friesthler. B., & Gruenwald. P. J. (2005).Population ecologies of drug use, drinking and
For example, they suggest opposite views on whether or not people with addictions are responsible for their AOD use and the problems that it may cause to themselves and others.42 They suggest very different views of whether people with addictions can give meaningful consent to participate in research that involves receiving the alcohol or other drug of dependence.43, 44 A balanced ethical discussion of addiction should take account of both viewpoints, recognising that the reasoning and decision processes of people with addictions are impaired in some respects and to some degree, whilst recognising that they remain in other respects rational, moral agents.

5.2.5

Due weight can be given to both the disease and the personal choice views of addiction through the key ethical concepts of person and personhood. Human beings are uniquely deserving of respect because they are persons, that is, creatures able to exercise moral agency and whose actions are appropriately subject to praise and blame. Personhood in this sense is both a description of how human beings are much of the time and an