July 6, 2008

Canadian Panel to Investigate University's Halting of Controversial Research

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has set up a blue-ribbon panel to determine whether Kwantlen Polytechnic University breached academic freedom by halting a professor’s study of assisted suicides. Russel Ogden, a professor of sociology at the institution’s Surrey campus, in the Vancouver area, had obtained an ethics board’s approval of his right-to-die research project, but the university later told him that he could not observe assisted suicides, according to the National Post newspaper.

“I’m not aware of any university in North America giving permission for research and then stopping it,” James Turk, the faculty association’s executive director, told The Chronicle. “It certainly appears to be a flagrant violation of academic freedom and has serious implications for controversial research on any campus.” Mr. Turk said the university’s ethics board and vice president for research had signed off on the project and its protocol. “Although assisting in a suicide is illegal in Canada, it is my understanding that observing illegal behavior is not forbidden by law,” he said.

The university says it changed its mind about allowing the research after getting two legal opinions that stated there were “real and unacceptable legal risks,” The Surrey North Delta Leader, a local newspaper, reported.

Mr. Ogden, who has championed the right of researchers to protect the privacy of people involved in assisted suicides, has told news organizations that he would like to speak publicly about the latest controversy but cannot because it would jeopardize his job. —Karen Birchard

Comments

1. Very interesting. Perhaps the unacceptable legal risk is not merely the observation of a criminal act, but that he quite likely could become a witness in prosecutions — publicity the school may wish to avoid. Or they may be concerned that arranging to be present, rather than incidentally observing a criminal act is problematic. It would be informative to see the legal opinions and understand what the problem(s) may be.

   — babylawyer    Jul 7, 10:45 AM    #

2. I have to say that—unusually for me—I’m with the university on this one. If it made a foolish mistake in initially signing off on the project and then had second thoughts, that lends support to the adage that second thoughts are generally wiser ones. To take one example of the doors that Prof. Ogden’s methodology might open: would it be acceptable for a professor of criminology to attach him- or herself to a street gang setting homeless people on fire in doorways, provided that he or she merely took notes upon rather than participated in the attacks?

   — Gustave    Jul 7, 12:57 PM    #

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