Competition for Nellie Westerman Prize in Ethics AnnouncedAuthor(s): Carol LevineSource: IRB: Ethics and Human Research, Vol. 1, No. 8 (Dec., 1979), p. 7Published by: The Hastings CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3564168 .

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Competition for Nellie Westerman Prize in Ethics Announced

The American Federation for Clin- ical Research has announced the competition for the annual Nellie Westerman Prize in ethics. The pur- pose of the prize is to stimulate crea- tive approaches to analyzing and perhaps resolving ethical problems en-

countered by investigators in the course of planning or conducting re- search involving human subjects. The prize ($750) will be awarded to the author(s) of the best paper-in the judgement of the Award Committee-- submitted in competition.

To be considered for the prize, man- uscripts should be typed double- spaced, should not exceed 20 pages, in- cluding references and illustrative ma- terial, and should be submitted in duplicate to Dale H. Cowan, M.D., Di- rector of Hematology/Oncology, St. Luke's Hospital, 11311 Shaker Boule- vard, Cleveland, Ohio 44104. Manu- scripts must be received no later than February 15, 1980, to be eligible.

Carol Levine

December 1979

Social Scientists Form Committee to Protest Proposed Regulations

A committee of social scientists, headed by Ithiel de Sola Pool, a politi- cal scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has challenged the constitutionality of the DHEW pro- posed regulations (see Federal Register, August 14, 1979, and IRB, November 1979, pp. 1-5, 12).

In urging colleagues to join the Com- mittee of Concern about Institutional Review Board Practices, de Sola Pool states in a memorandum dated Sep- tember 9, 1979, that the proposed regu- lations "represent substantial im- provement over previous rules and draft rules, but are still grossly im- proper and unconstitutional."

According to de Sola Pool, the three main flaws of the draft regulations, as they apply to social science research, are: (1) they extend federal authority to privately funded research, which should "in a free society be guided by private and professional decisions"; (2) they give institutional review boards unwarranted and illegal authority to reject research projects on the IRB's judgement of "whether the research methods are appropriate to the objec- tives of the research, and the field of study"; (3) and they violate First Amendment rights by requiring prior review ("i.e., censorship") on much in- terview and other survey research.

Among the more than forty prospec- tive members of the committee listed at the end of the memorandum are Gabriel Almond, Nathan Glazer, George Homans, Laud Humphreys, Charles Lindblom, Peter Rossi, and Murray Wax.

For more information about the committee and its analysis of the pro- posed regulations, write Ithiel de Sola Pool, 105 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

-TTERS

More Time for Comments on Proposed Regulations

As your readers are well aware, the comment period for responses to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register of Au- gust 14, 1979, closed on November 12. The NPRM, if adopted as final regula- tions, would modify extensively 45

CFR 46, Subpart A to incorporate the recommendations of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and the experi- ences of the past five years in imple- menting the regulations. The Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) has begun the process of draft- ing the final regulations in light of the comments submitted to our office. Al- though the process is underway, it will be several weeks before a completed draft of the final regulations will be cir- culated for review within HEW and subsequently forwarded to the Secre- tary for approval. During the process of drafting (until the end of January), any comments we receive will still be taken into consideration. I would, therefore, like to encourage interested parties to continue to submit comments, even though the official comment period is closed.

It would be most useful to OPRR in the drafting process if specific sugges- tions for wording and language changes and the reasons for them are presented. This would enable us to be as responsive as possible to the com- ments during the drafting process.

If there are any questions on matters that I can reply to, please feel free to contact me or Mr. Denis Doyle at (301) 496-7163.

F. William Dommel, Jr., J.D. Assistant Director for Regulations

OPRR, NIH 7

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