But for some reason as a society we will let people sky dive, horseback ride, smoke cigarettes, or get raging drunk for any reason, but if it's for research we won't let subjects consent to even the risk of filling out a survey without IRB approval.

Last I checked, "ethics" were supposed to protect life, not uphold some arbitrary abstract standard while people died by the raft loads.

But pay me no mind. I learned my ethics from military culture which deals with life and death routinely. So I might have some weird ideas about upholding the value of life as sacred or something.