[DataWorker]

I think you make his point. You work in medical research, all of these hoops to jump through are a real benefit to you. They keep you from being sued and act as moats that protect your livelyhood from external disruption. Do the hoops protect the participants in the research? Of course. But at what cost to the participants and at what cost to less well equipped researchers and at what cost to science itself? It's good that you won't be sued, and your training in filling in the various forms is commendable but maybe there's another side to things you're too inculcated to see clearly.

[euyyn]

> They keep you from being sued [but] at what cost to the participants [...]?

The people suing you would be the participants, because you would have already harmed them. Not getting sued by them is just a derived benefit of the primary goal of protecting them from you. And the protections extend well beyond what a patient might bother suing you for: it's an ethical committee after all.

> at what cost to less well equipped researchers and at what cost to science itself?

Completely secondary considerations, for very good reasons. Nazis weren't the only ones to harm patients; also well-intentioned scientists that thought of the greater good for science itself, and grad students that lacked resources or equipment.