Based on our past history (e.g., the Tuskegee experiment) it is now crucial to apply confidentiality and informed consent in studies, especially human subjects. Therefore, harm can reduced as much as possible. I feel the past history is a lesson that social scientists should avoid in studies. All human subjects are required to understand the risk factors and procedures in a study they are participating in. If they require confidentiality, researchers should also agree. Like you have mentioned they are helping researchers gain valuable evidence and this should be respected.
There was nothing even remotely resembling ethics in the Tuskegee experiment. Starting with the lack of informed consent, when they decided not to inform the patients of their disease or lack of treatment. They allowed a curable disease to be passed of to wives, and participants children. The gross neglect of patients, all for a experiment with no scientific validity. They let these black men suffer tremendously with no actual regret nor remorse. To say that these men were happy to see the doctors is even more disturbing of them, of course they saw these doctors as professionals trusting them with their health. This study shows how little whites thought of blacks, and willing to sacrifice them for no real
Stanford Prison Experiment is a popular experiment among social science researchers. In 1973, a psychologist named Dr. Philip Zimbardo wants to find out what are the factors that cause reported brutalities among guards in American prisons. His aim was to know whether those reported brutalities were because of the personalities of the guards or the prison environment. However, during the experiment, things get muddled unexpectedly. The experiment became controversial since it violates some ethical standards while doing the research.
The human race has greatly benefitted through the use of animals. They have not only been a great form of companionship for people, but have also helped with the success in the world of medicine. For many years, the rights of animals and animal experimentation have been up for debate on whether or not it should be legal. Some may find that animal testing has led to major advancements in the medical world and that it is a small price to pay to save millions of lives, but others believe it is inhumane and that animals should be given the same rights as humans. Although the experimentation of animals has furthered medical knowledge, it should not be allowed because it is brutal and animals are unable to give their approval.
Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study
Is it right for one's life to be manipulated for the use of scientific research or is it just a evasion on the person's privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a African American with cells that intrigued many people, she was diagnosed with cancer leaving her to be cared for at her local hospital, where she would later die due to the extremity of the illness. While at the hospital she was unaware that the doctors there were experimenting on her taking cell samples from her body, to help find a resolution to multiple diseases. The people who examined Henrietta manipulated her and the rest of her family to gain information on her cellular structure to be ahead of others looking to achieve the same objective. Henrietta Lacks cells should have never been evaluated because it's an evasion of her freedom, a danger to her personal health, and cause conflicts.
I recently finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, a biography about Henrietta Lacks and how human tissue was taken without consent then used for medical research. Henrietta Lacks, was a colored woman, she was the daughter of a tobacco farmer, she came from a very poor, with very little education, she died from uremic poisoning, due to the treatment for cervical cancer October of 1951 at age 31. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she found a knot on her womb and was bleeding and had pain in her abdomen. Johns Hopkins is known for being the best research hospital around, but Henrietta did not go because
Research that involves human participants raises a lot of ethical questions and concerns. Ethics refers to the norms or principles that generally guide any research as well as whether research activities are conducted the right or the wrong way. Additionally, ethics are the moral principles that govern the behavioral component when a certain activity is conducted, in this case the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (citation?). In summary, the Tuskegee Study is a medical research that was conducted over an extensive period of time from
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study had lots of controversy over the 1900´s. The study happened in a racist and poor time period between 1932 and 1972. It included 600 African American men that were infected with Syphilis. It was conducted in rural and poor Tuskegee, Alabama. The test was to see if African American males responded to Syphilis differently than white males. This study was passed and funded through Congress; however they did not know the full story. The wrong in this study was that the men did not give informed consent and did not receive any treatment. The men were studied till their autopsy, which is obviously death. This sparked much controversy and changed human experimentation forever.
They were told that they were being treated of ‘bad blood” and the doctors who conducted this study had no intention of curing the patients of syphilis at all; their focus of the experiment was to see the symptoms from beginning to end. The doctors of the experiment persuaded people to join the trial by offering to pay for burial services and by providing care for their illness which they thought was something else. This experiment targeted African Americans that had no education level to know that they were being manipulated. They were taught to believe that doctors were there to help and nothing they would do would harm them. Like when the only real cure for syphilis was discovered the patients were denied of treatment. The first major ethical issue that should be considers is informed consent, which is informing the research participants what they are participating and all aspects of the project/ experiment that might cause the patient to not participate. The second issue is withholding treatment for the purpose of research. As doctors and caretakers it is the job to take care and cure rather than
Not only did the researchers break the rule to do no harm by allowing the men to fall subject to the greatest harm possible, but they broke the rule to maximize benefits and minimize harm as well. In order to prevent ethical breaches under the principle of beneficence from occurring again, there are two steps that all researchers should take. The first step that should be taken is to assess of the justifiability of your research. What is the exact reason as to why this experiment should be done and is it really necessary? The next step is to assess the scope of risks and benefits. Are the risks that you’re putting your human subjects in worth the benefits that will be created in the end? With the help of these two steps, and by really critically thinking about the outcomes of your research, minimal breaches of beneficence should
The Tuskegee experimental study, which was carried out for a total of forty years from 1932 to 1972, remains one of the biggest and indeed one of the most disgusting scandals in the history of American medicine. More than 400 black men died in Alabama as public officials and doctors watched (Brandt, 1978). The Tuskegee scandal was a scientific experiment which was done using unethical ways and methods that in the end did not result in the production of new information on syphilis. The cure of the subjects who participated in the study was withheld without their knowledge, and consequently, many people died while others were left with permanent disabilities. Newborns were not spared either, and many of them were infected with congenital syphilis.
“A Question of Ethics” by Jane Goodall and “Animal Research Saves Lives” by Heloisa Sabin presents two sides of the same coin in regards to Animal testing. Thereby, questioning the validity or necessity of animal research and testing today. In “A Question of Ethics” by Goodall she presents a scenery of the living conditions of the animals which are often isolated; posing the ultimate questions of, whether animal research is essential to medical research? Or How many tests are performed only to conform to laws and not out of scientific merit? The Suggestion was made that scientists should explore alternative options, such as testing on cell and tissue cultures. On the other hand, Sabin also puts forward an argument in support of animal testing, as her dear late husband Albert Sabin conducted many tests on animals whilst perfecting his vaccine against polio. The sacrifice of these animals has enabled entire generations of humans to grow up without fear of the crippling effects of polio. Animal rights advocates who see animal experimentation as cruel and wasteful overlook the fact that it has been instrumental in developing medicines that have saved countless human
If someone searches human experimentation online it will tell you that human experimentation can be broadly defined as anything done to an individual to learn how it will affect him or her afterwards. Experimentation on a human being is the experimentation of humans to help find cures and to help fight off things like illnesses or diseases. It can also help provide us with the medicine and knowledge of what medication should be used to treat the injury or illness medication treats things. Like headaches, sore muscles, injuries, and many more things. There is a lot of debate over human experimentation and whether it is right, if it works, or if it is needed at all. Experimentation on humans, while sometimes beneficial, often has resulted
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