Ethical Issues In Biomedical Research Essay

In biomedical and behavioural research, there can be issues that arise during the discovery of new processes and products, such as the ethicality of certain experiments and the results obtained. Back in the old times, when standards for conducting scientific research and experiments were not strictly adhered to, experiments conducted resulted in people or other living things being put in harm’s way, to obtain a certain result or confirm a suspicion. While such experiments claimed to be justified because they were meant to advance medical knowledge, is it always right to make sacrifices for the greater good? In this essay, I will use some case studies to discuss ethical issues in biomedical research.

A common ethical issue concerns the use

There was a psychological experiment conducted, involving students who were also unaware, that aimed to find out more about the Bystander Effect regarding why people take more time to respond to a matter when they are in a group than when they are alone. Two psychologists by the names of John Darley and Bibb Latané were the ones responsible for the experiment. The study involved a single student in the room and a group of students in another. A distressed call by a trained actor who pretended to have a seizure was made in both rooms, and the study recorded how long the students took to respond. The results showed that the single student reacted faster to the distressed call than the group, who shifted the responsibility of responding to the call among each

Using the example of the Bystander Effect experiment, the subjects only suffered from psychological harm, which was not as severe as the physical harm suffered by the African Americans during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, so the sacrifice is worth having compared to the benefits brought about by the experiment. Some might think that it is worth having a smaller number of people suffer for the benefit of the larger group, but the individuals who do suffer would not agree. When researchers do not adhere to guidelines that ensure the protection of subjects in biomedical research and result in physical harm, the sacrifices are simply not acceptable. Research is essential for the progression of mankind - without research, mankind will not discover cures or advancements in medical science. To the dying, even if the treatment is experimental some may be willing to take it. Thus the least we can do as researchers is to minimise the harm caused by the