A recent Des Moines Register article describes a federal inquiry regarding human subject research conducted at a center for people with severe intellectual disabilities. The story includes links to previous reporting on the matter.
We note the story indicates the request for information came from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and not from the Office for Human Research Protections, which typically oversees human subject research. Then again, we typically think of The Feds as one big entity with many branches that, we assume, talk to each other.
We share this story with you to underline the importance of ethical conduct and oversight in research.