Who owns your consent? How REBs give away participants’ agency

We draw on three illustrative vignettes to examine how REBs manage participants’ agency in the context of qualitative research. ask: Who owns a participant’s consent? Central informed consent is principle Respect for Persons, which privileges autonomy individuals make decisions about what happens (or not) them. Yet, sometimes require researchers get permission from organizations conduct research their current and former members, even when not those organizations. Our aim raise awareness inherent contradictions this practice consider guidelines determining appropriateness involving that may be tangentially connected objectives or potential participants.