You are the director of human research protection at a community hospital. You have one IRB with seven members. Six of the members are physicians with staff privileges at your hospital. The seventh member, a representative from the community, just resigned from the IRB. Six qualified people have applied to fill the empty seat: a bioethicist, a minister, a former study participant, a community leader, a sociologist, and a member of a disadvantaged group served by the hospital. Because of a hospital policy that is set in stone, you can accept only one new IRB member. Read more