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The Pros And Cons Of Medical Research Experiment

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Medical Research has the potential to advance society and make life better for everyone in it. However, the ends cannot justify the means; the rights of the subjects of research cannot be violated no matter the possible benefit to mankind. Despite this, time and time again, it has been very easy for, at least allegedly well-meaning scientists to violate the rights of their research subjects because they wanted to help society as a whole. Such experiments were not performed in secret by a minority of scientists; they were often done “by respected investigators at leading medical institutions and were published in medical journals (Scandals and Tragedies 3)." It is vital that we understand the circumstances of these experiments and why they happened so …show more content…

Prior to Guatemala, it was attempted in a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, however, the researchers “were unable to come up with a method for consistently infecting prison inmates with gonorrhea, and therefore couldn 't study the disease effectively or administer potential treatments (Mariani)." The researchers knew they could not continue the experiments in the United States so they moved to Guatemala where they used even more unethical means to infect Guatemalan soldiers, mental patients, and prisoners. It is clear that they could not rationalize performing the procedures they used on the Guatemalans on American citizens; these experiments occurred because of the prejudice that foreigners are less than Americans and do not have human rights. Throughout history, countless horrific human rights violations, just like those in Guatemala, have occurred under the guise of medical research. Research ethics standards have sought to prevent these experiments from happening since the Nuremberg trials, but they continue to occur for reasons which tend to be based in prejudice, and by using methods which have often depended on taking advantage of vulnerable persons and

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