全国歯科大学・大学歯学部倫理委員会についての実態調査報告

抄録

In July 2005, I investigated the conditions of the dental ethics committees of 29 universities and dental colleges in Japan. Of these, 16 responded to questions sent to them. In this report, I consider the problems pertaining to these dental ethics committees. Some committees are composed of members who are either dental specialists, or dental specialists and natural scientists. However, according to the criteria of the guidelines drafted by the Board of Bioethics and Security of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, there must be at least one external member and one female member on each such committees. In response to the question concerning the ethical problems involved in the process of review of dental research conducted on human subjects, these committees stated that they have almost no such problems. I suspect that the committees' members are unfamiliar with eminent declarations such as, the WMA Declaration of Helsinki and other guidelines, and are not sensitive to ethical issues,; therefore, their review process is thus probably not fair. Such committees also appear insensitive to the ethics of dental education, since they do not provide guidance to students in collecting extracted teeth with informed consent. On the other hand, the ethics committees that follow the criteria of guidelines are sensitive to internal issues, e.g., how the committees are authorized and what qualities are required of members. There is thus a gap in quality among committees. However, this investigation does not clarify the sorts of problems that should be considered ethical. An increase in review of ethical committees is expected. I believe that it is important for such committees to communicate with eath other in clarifying ethical issues, eliminate the gap in quality among committees, and adequately consider their authority and obligations as well as, the requirements concerning the qualities of their members.