Dr. Burgess and Lee are trying to determine whether the risk of violating the principle of respect for persons is outweighed by the possible benefit of learning about the range of substance abuse behaviors among hearing impaired individuals.

These are some possible outcomes:

The investigators decide that learning more about hearing impaired substance abusers would encourage more successful proactive intervention strategies and thus worth the risk.

The investigators decide that the risk of violating respect for persons is greater than the possible benefit gained from learning more hearing impaired substance abusers.

The investigators decide that the possible benefits gained to all hearing-impaired substance abusers is greater that risk to the study participants. However, the investigators feel a need to modify the original study design to ensure a higher standard of confidentiality