| Abstract: | Correspondence to Bernard Gallagher, Research Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover St., Mancester M13 9PL. Summary Ethical dilemmas have been encountered in many areas of socialresearch and have at times been the subject of much controversy.Despite this, the problem of how to tackle ethical dilemmashas received little attention in the literature. As a result,researchers faced with these dilemmas have little knowledgeto draw upon, and groups associated with research, such as participatingagencies and ethics committees, may not fully appreciate allthe issues involved in dealing with ethical dilemmas. Theseissues are not only philosophical in nature but relate alsoto the methodological and practical implications of followingone, rather than another, ethical principle. The researchersencountered a number of ethical dilemmas in their research inchild protection. By discussing different approaches to solvingethical dilemmas, they intend to show that this is a complexproblem and one which, along with ethics in general, requiresgreater attention in the literature. |
