Vulnerability and Incarceration

In light of a history of exploitation by researchers, most of the limited scholarship on prisoners in medical ethics is focused on precaution and protections. Vulnerability and Incarceration: Evaluating Protections for Prisoners in Research explores the best ways for researchers to balance these concerns with the rights of incarcerated persons to both participate in medical research and benefit from medical and scientific progress. The book examines the historical and contemporary regulatory landscape governing prisoner participation in research and the concept of vulnerability in play when classifying prisoners as vulnerable. Elizabeth Victor discusses how this concept might preclude a prisoner’s positive right to participate in research from being acknowledged. She also addresses the differences in oversight between public and private prisoners and how the shift to privatized prisons compounds the vulnerability of prisoners in the United States.