The use of empirical research in bioethics: a survey of researchers in twelve European countries

BMC Medical Ethics

Table 7 Attitudes of bioethics scholars towards the use of empirical research^a

	All respondents (N = 200)		All empirical researchers (N = 175)		Integrators of Normative and Empirical (N = 62)^b		Non-Integrators of Normative and Empirical (N = 113)
	n	%	N	%	n	%	n	%
I find it positive that empirical research is done in the field of bioethics^c	189	94.5	170	97.1	62	100	108	95.6
Empirical research is valuable in describing the context of an ethical problem	193	96.5	169	96.6	61	98.4	108	95.6
Empirical research is valuable for normative analysis^c	156	78.0	140	80.0	56	90.3	84	74.3*
There is/are clear method(s) to integrate empirical findings into normative analysis	57	28.5	50	28.6	16	25.8	34	30.1
I fear that the trend towards empirical research in bioethics is leading bioethics away from normative work	48	24.0	39	22.3	11	17.7	28	24.8
Bioethics needs its own empirical research Methodology^c	85	42.5	76	43.4	23	37.1	53	46.9
Researchers in the field of bioethics should have the skills to interpret empirical findings	186	93.0	162	92.6	56	90.3	106	93.8
Researchers in the field of bioethics should have the skills to conduct their own empirical research^c	110	55.0	100	57.1	30	48.4	70	61.9

^aRespondents answering ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ within each category
^b‘Integrators of normative and empirical’ was defined as respondents who answered positive to the question: “Have you ever carried out a study to integrate empirical research findings and normative analysis”
*p ≤ 0.05. p-value based on Chi² test were run for selected questions (^c) based on descriptive responses. We compared ‘integrators’ and ‘non-integrators’ of empirical research methods. Bonferroni correction applied for multiple testing

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