As someone who does medical research, I have to agree with jadelennox that I find your assertion that "IRBs are bad" a bit black-and-white. Certainly there are times when I am puzzled by the variety of answers I get from various IRB/ECs. And I can certainly see how the medical vs. social research fields require very different things from an IRB, and depending on what sort/level of IRB you are dealing with, the people involved may not have the required knowledge. Or may be dealing with their own biases, politics, etc. Human nature.

But that said...I don't think they are bad in total! Having a committee that oversees the ethics of research? That is supposed to protect human subjects? Having had to take courses repeatedly about the reasons there are IRBs, and the Declaration of Helsinki, Good Clinical Practices, etc...