Balancing risks and benefits of deception in assessing genetic screening utilization.
OBJECTIVE
To advocate that research using intentional deception is sometimes appropriate.


METHODS
A deception paradigm created to assess utilization of genetic screening for alcoholism susceptibility is reviewed in the context of competing ethical obligations and objections to the procedure.


CONCLUSIONS
The paradigm is ethically defensible, it generates useful knowledge about future utilization of alcoholism screening by college students, and it exposes participants to no more than minimal risk. The use of deception to address questions related to predictive genetic screening will require investigators to balance protection of participants with the need to advance knowledge.
Thombs
D L
DL
Department of Adult, Counseling, Health and Vocational Education, Kent State University, OH 44242-0001, USA. dthombs@educ.kent.edu
Mahoney
C A
CA
Olds
R S
RS
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics*; D008192:Deception; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006805:Human Experimentation; D016045:Human Genome Project; D006801:Humans; D009820:Ohio; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D012307:Risk Factors; D013334:Students; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities