Enacted a generation ago in response to real abuses by some notorious medical researchers, so-called institutional review boards have morphed into entities that are stifling and distorting important research throughout academia.
Zachary M. Schrag
Zachary M. Schrag is a professor of history at George Mason University and author of Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965-2009. His Institutional Review Blog features details on many incidents described in this essay.