ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 and 2 introduced the fundamentals of research ethics review and
briefly outlined the chequered history of research involving human participants.
It now falls to this chapter to provide an overview of the ethical and philosophical
frameworks within which research ethics committees (RECs) operate in practice.
The chapter will open with an overview of the role and remit of RECs as a central
part of research practice, in order to identify and explain some of the practicalities
associated with the process of ethical review. A consideration of the philosophical
and bioethical theories that underpin the process of ethical review, as conducted
