Research-Project and Annotated Bibliography Draft

Overview

In 1932 the normal of voluntary informed consent when based on a concept of respect for the individual's autonomy that outweighs the beneficence of medical treatment or research was not part of the ethos of American researcher," asserts ethicist John C. Fletcher.

For this project you will be conducting preliminary research that explores the tension between the key concepts of medical beneficence and individual autonomy as they relate to the development of public health ethics. Your goal is to read, analyze, and assemble sources that will enable you to effectively apply Fletcher's four-part framework to making "trans-historical moral judgments," the topic of your final paper.

Tasks

Your final work will consist of two products: A research report and an annotated bibliography.

The research report will consist of a 500-word commentary in which you describe your research process. Where did it take you? How did it evolve? How did you select your final sources, and how do you know they are reliable? I should, after reading your commentary, have a solid sense of your research process and the significance of the source material you have selected to annotate.

The annotated bibliography consists of a list of six high-quality sources that explain, analyze, or contextualize the key concepts of medical beneficence and individual autonomy as they pertain to public health research and policy. In annotating the sources, youmust do the following:

• Explain why the source is relevant, credible, and promising

• Summarize its findings

• Identify any experts or other sources cited within the source that would merit further study, or that strengthen the source being discussed

• Explain what sets the source apart from others; does it complement or counter them?

Your annotations will be substantive; it is unlikely that you will be able to cover each source in fewer than 250 words. Refer to the Norton Online Handbook (there is a link on Blackboard) for guidance in formatting your annotations.

Research Project and Annotated Bibliography Draft

In conducting this research, it will be critical that you read widely. You may want to begin with a handbook, encyclopedia, or curriculum (such as the ASPH curriculum on our Blackboard site) to get a feel for the topic. You will then want to look up scholarly books (books are likely to be better initial sources for this work) and articles that address the history and evolution of these values, as well as any leading thinkers on the topic (here it will be useful for you to refer to Fletcher's footnotes, and those of other ethicists, in order to "mine" the text).
In beginning your research, you will want to document key terms that appear in your general reading. These key terms will then be the focus of your more in-depth research, for which you should plan a trip to the library to meet with a librarian. I encourage you to conduct these trips in pairs, as two heads really are better than one. At the library you should be prepared to identify an appropriate database for your search, as well as journals in the fields of the history of medicine, bioethics, and public health.