President's Commission Recommends Experiment in Compensation for Research InjuriesAuthor(s): Carol LevineSource: IRB: Ethics and Human Research, Vol. 4, No. 7 (Aug. - Sep., 1982), p. 7Published by: The Hastings CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3563961 .

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August/September 1982 - PDATE-

President's Commission Recommends Experiment in Compensation for Research Injuries

The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Re- search has recommended that the De- partment of Health and Human Serv- ices (HHS) conduct a "small-scale social policy experiment" to determine whether there is a need for a full-scale formal program providing compensa- tion for injuries to research subjects. The Commission's suggestion is con- tained in its June 1982 report, Compen- sating for Research Injuries: The Ethi- cal and Legal Implications of Programs to Redress Injured Subjects (GPO stock number 040-000-00455-6).

The Commission has been studying the question of compensation for two years and concluded after a review of the existing data and its own studies that insufficient information exists to resolve fully the question of the extent of present injuries and of present re- dress.

The experiment it recommends would involve several institutions that receive federal funds. Over the course of three to five years the administra- tive and insurance costs of providing compensation on a nonfault basis would be examined. At different insti- tutions the features of the compensa- tion plan could be varied (according to the level of benefits provided, means of determining causation, whether nonphysical injuries would be cov- ered, and so on). Information derived from such variations, as well as from the experience of comparable institu- tions without research compensation programs, should, the Commission be- lieves, permit HHS to determine "not only the need for a full-scale program, if any, but also the format and aus- pices that appear best suited to achieve the desired result."

The report contains sections on the background of the issue, the ethical basis for compensation, the nature and extent of research-related inju- ries, the existing remedies and their limitations, and features of nonfault insurance programs.

A separate volume containing stud- ies prepared for the Commission and possible compensation plans is also available from the Superintendent of Documents.

Carol Levine

CALENDAR

Protecting Human Subjects will be discussed in detail during day-and-a-half regional workshops scheduled for SEPTEMBER 9-10 at UC Berkeley and SEP- TEMBER 15-16 at UCLA. Sponsored by the human subjects committees (IRBs) of these institutions, the workshops are supported by NIH's Office for Protection from Research Risks and the FDA. They will feature a faculty of federal officials, human subjects committee members, behavioral and biomedical researchers, and university and hospital administrators. Offered to persons in the Pacific- Southwest region who are concerned with research involving human subjects, workshop attendees may qualify for 10 hours of CME credits. For further infor- mation and registration materials, please contact Mr. Dobie Jenkins, Human Subjects Committee, A&E Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, (415) 642-7461 or Ms. Gitta Walton, Human Subjects Policy Committee, 1P-439, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024, (213) 825-8714.

OCTOBER 10-11: Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) will hold a two-day conference on "Research in Human Subjects with Special Problems" at the Suffolk University Law School, Boston, MA. While this meet- ing will focus specifically on research with children (including the new regula- tions expected late this summer concerning children) and with the mentally ill, other groups, including prisoners, geriatric patients, pregnant women, fetuses, the temporarily incompetent (e.g., shock victims, comatose persons, etc.), the chronically ill, and normal volunteers, will also be discussed. For more information, please contact Joan Rachlin, Executive Director, or Melissa Apperson, Administrative Assistant, at 15 Court Square, Suite 340, Boston, MA 02108, or (617) 367-4992, 367-2829.

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