Informed Consent, Deception, and Research Freedom in Qualitative Research

Does there exist only one, universally valid, research ethic? Are informed consent and ethical committees the best means to ensure the moral correctness of research? Again, what consequences ensue from the introduction of these instruments for the freedom of research and the quality of its results? This article addresses these issues by first recounting an ethnography conducted by its author in the oncology department of a large Italian hospital. To carry out his research the author initially had to conceal his identity and the purpose of his presence from the patients. Only later was this mode of conducting his fieldwork abandoned. The rest of the article compares this experience with very different ones reported by a number of American ethnographers. The article concludes by examining problems, such as the influence of the cultural context on the ethnographer's moral choices, or the value of informed consent and ethical committees, in the light of the empirical materials previously presented