Ariella Binik
Ethics Fellow
Ariella Binik is an ethics fellow at the Ethox Centre. She is interested in the ethics of clinical trials with human subjects. One theme in her research aims to explain when and why it is permissible to enroll children—who cannot consent for themselves—in clinical research. Ariella argues that children’s inclusion in research can only be justified when the risks of a trial stand in reasonable relation to the knowledge to be gained, and she is developing a framework for the ethical assessment of risk in pediatric research.
Ariella’s research also examines ethical challenges raised by different kinds of study designs. She has worked with clinical trialists, epidemiologists, and other ethicists to consider ethical and methodological challenges raised by cluster randomized trials (CRTs), a kind of trial used commonly in public health research that randomizes group—such as villages or communities—rather than individuals to different intervention arms. She also works on ethical questions raised by “stepped-wedge” studies and their use during public health emergencies.
A third theme in Ariella’s research focuses on the concept of vulnerability. She is involved in a mixed-methods collaborative project (called REACH) that brings together ethicists and social scientists in Kenya, Thailand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. This project aims to identify and address challenges in ethics guidance for research with women, children, and families in low-income settings. Ariella’s work in this area aims to develop an interpretation of the concept of vulnerability for global health ethics, and to consider whether global health researchers bear special obligations over and above those of all people to redress the vulnerabilities of participants in their research studies and in the broader communities in which they work.
Recent publications
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Does benefit justify research with children?
Journal article
Binik A., (2018), Bioethics, 32, 27 - 35
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A Defense of The-Risks-of-Daily-Life.
Journal article
Binik A., (2017), Kennedy Inst Ethics J, 27, 413 - 442
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Logistic, ethical, and political dimensions of stepped wedge trials: critical review and case studies.
Journal article
Prost A. et al, (2015), Trials, 16
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Position statement on ethics, equipoise and research on charged particle radiation therapy.
Journal article
Sheehan M. et al, (2014), J Med Ethics, 40, 572 - 575
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Why the debate over minimal risk needs to be reconsidered.
Journal article
Binik A. and Weijer C., (2014), J Med Philos, 39, 387 - 405