Research Ethics and Intellectual Disability

Research Ethics and Intellectual Disability
Book Chapter
Kevin Mintz, David Wasserman
The Disability Bioethics Reader, 2022 [Routledge]
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the exclusion of people with cognitive disabilities from research that is not related to their disabilities. Wasserman and Mintz argue that despite real limitations with regard to consent (most people with cognitive disabilities will only be able to assent), denying people with cognitive disabilities the ability to participate in research is largely unjustifiable. Moreover, it has effects that ought to be avoided namely, moral harm of persons with cognitive disabilities and increased vulnerability to abuses and violations when they do participate in research. Wasserman and Mintz argue that there is no good reason to exclude people with cognitive disabilities on the basis of their limitations, especially because people of similar cognitive ages are able to participate in research.