Research using human subjects must have an intrinsic social benefit. Satisfaction of the requirements for a degree does not qualify as such a benefit although the student researcher may think this is a socially useful accomplishment. On the other hand, the benefit to society of any research need not accrue to or bestow on the human subjects of the research that leads to the benefit. In general, the more distant the benefit is from the actual human subject of research, the more careful one must be in the analysis of the benefit to the risk.
Research using human subjects must be conducted so as to reduce or eliminate physical or emotional harm to the subject. When the risk cannot be eliminated a judgment must be made whether or not the benefit expected can (1) reasonably be expected to emerge from the research, and only then (2) whether the potential benefit is worth the risk. To determine the former, the science and scholarship must be critically reviewed.
The most frequent error of researchers is an over-estimate of the potential benefit and an under-estimate of the potential risk to human subjects. The ethical principle of "beneficence" requires that researchers stand back away from their work and describe their work as dispassionately as humanly possible. Then, their work is subjected to the review of others who are less likely to have become inured to the stresses and risks of certain lines of research.
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