Right to Withdraw

The final aspect of the Belmont principle of respect for persons is the right of subjects to withdraw from the study without penalty. This aspect is often the most difficult in practice for researchers. Why? Because as researchers, the reason we have gone through all of the IRB process, recruitment and all that entails, is because we want people to complete our study and to get their data. You may discover it is difficult to get people participate (not an unusual occurrence), so to have someone say they want to stop after they started can be very difficult to hear. 

What is the experience like? Let me give you an example from a study I did (in person) for my Senior Honor's Thesis in college. I had a very difficult memory test that both college age and people over 65 did on the computer. It required the subjects to quickly come up with memory strategies to remember short strings of numbers followed by a distractor task (so they couldn’t rehearse them). It was a frustrating study, particularly for the older people. I had several older people get part way through the study and quit. Keep in mind; it is hard to recruit older adults, so that was devastating for me. 

What can you do in these situations? All you can do is thank them for coming in, and if you are giving any participation gifts, you give that to them and send them on their way. No begging them to stay, no special incentives. Let them leave. It's hard, but you must respect their decision.  

If you decide to do a computer survey, realize that you are going to lose data, similar to the above- some people will not complete it. You may have even done this yourself when a survey seemed too long and involved- you just close the link. Gives you a little different view thinking about it as the researcher, doesn’t it? 

Keep in mind that a basic ethical principle is that people have the right to stop their participation at any time without penalty. Their participation is a gift they may choose to take back. Treat them with respect and courtesy, honor the time they have given you. 

Next time I will examine the second Belmont principle: Beneficence. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu