Ethical issues in Alzheimer disease research

Research in Alzheimer disease (AD) is required to advance knowledge for the ultimate goal of finding a cure or prevention and to improve care for pers ons with AD and their caregivers. All research needs to be planned and cond ucted ethically, but research in AD has many ethical issues to consider due to the diminished cognitive capacity of potential subjects and genetic tes ting for AD. This paper describes the development of guidelines for ethical research, applying ethical principles to issues in human subjects research , and ethical issues in AD research. Important ethical questions must be ad dressed in AD research and basic moral and professional values will certain ly be tested as the state of the science improves and research on AD, espec ially research involving genetic testing for the disease, becomes more acce ptable and available.