ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the significant and frequently troublesome matter of ethics and ethical issues in participant observational research. It considers the central ethical principles of biblical religion and Western philosophy which supply the foundation for most applied and professional ethics. The chapter provides a panoramic sketch of Western sources of ethics. The general principles of Western philosophical ethics are formulated within the larger context of the classical civilizations, biblical religions, and the subsequent mutual elaboration of both of the primary sources. Contextual ethics in human studies are even more diffuse, eclectic, and pluralistic than relational ethics. The chapter presents critiques of biomedical ethics, especially as enforced by institutional review boards (IRBs), and reservations about the applicability of relational ethics to certain forms of participant observation. The federal rules whereby most IRBs operate, known as the Common Rule, generally provide for expedited or exempted review of many forms of human studies research.
