I doubt if many members of self-styled "ethics" committees would know cant from Kant or soccer from Socrates.
If all they offer is superfluous and often amateur advice on research methodology, why don't they say so? If, as Frank Furedi suggests, they provide a bureaucratic litigation risk-avoidance mechanism - again, why don't they say so? To appropriate the name of ethics is unjustified.
Gill Rowley
Research fellow
Employment Studies Unit
University of the West of England