The informed consent of drug users in the anthropo-medical scientific research – an ethical dilemma?

A. Baciu, A. Pungă

Abstract: In this scientific research of medical anthropology, which aims to identify medical and social factors that determine drug use, as well as the effect of drugs on the consumers’ body, the voluntary participation based on informed consents, written and freely expressed, is sometimes difficult to obtain. The aim of this study is to better understand drug users’ problems in order to develop a methodology which can contribute to obtaining the informed consent in accordance with the law, from a greater number of subjects. The specific objectives of this research are: trying to answer questions about the identification of values which must be respected during scientific research in which drug consumers are a part of, the conflicts which appear between these values and which generate an ethical dilemma, and those referring to the fitting of the problems which appear when trying to obtain the informed consent of the drug consumers in a traditional manner of resolving ethical dilemmas. This paper attempts to demonstrate the importance of mastering the deontological aspects, the specific legislation, and the correct information in the course of a scientific study and also the collaboration with social workers, doctors, psychologists, sociologists and other people who are aware of the drug users’ problems and who are trusted to obtain the informed consent from them.
Keywords: informed consent, values, conflicts, drug users, ethical dilemma.