Minimal risk? You have been invited to serve on a college’s institutional review board. You must decide whether several research proposals qualify for lighter review because they involve only minimal risk to subjects. Federal regulations say that “minimal risk” means the risks are no greater than “those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.” That’s vague. Which of these do you think qualifies as “minimal risk”?

Draw a drop of blood by pricking a finger to measure blood sugar.

b. Draw blood from the arm for a full set of blood tests.

c. Insert a tube that remains in the arm so that blood can be drawn regularly.

I have to find out the minimal or not minimal risk from the above statement.

A drop of blood by pricking a finger to measure blood sugar qualifies as a minimal risk because the samples are purely taken from an individual's body and there is no harm in pricking a finger to measure blood sugar and it will give an accurate result.

Drawing blood from the arm for a full set of blood tests also qualifies as a minimal risk because the arm is a convenient part of the body to use because it can be easily uncovered. The usual place for a sample to be taken from is the inside of the elbow or wrist, where the veins are relatively close to the surface. This sample data will give us accurate results.

Inserting a tube that remains in the arm so that blood can be drawn regularly qualifies as a minimal risk because it takes the blood continuously, which may lead to some problems which have low blood level.