Kevin Lee Ethical Issues in Science Mr. Getz Two incredibly unethical experiments were conducted by the same government research group. The Guatemalan and Tuskegee syphilis studies failed to conduct their research in an ethical manner. Both studies used populations susceptible to manipulation due to their illness or socioeconomic condition. Furthermore, the scientists forced inmates and mental patients to take part of their unethical experiment. I believe the Guatemalan case is drastically worse compared to the syphilis case.
Not only does it show a medical procedure that went terribly wrong and ruined not one life but a whole family. It shows how scientists and experts can be wrong in their analysis of things. When they were just eight months old, twins Bruce and Brian Reimer where admitted to the hospital to undergo a routine circumcision, wherein most of Bruce’s penis was burned off accidentally. Embarrassed, and afraid that their son would be ostracized by his peers when he reached adolescence; parents Ron and Jane Reimer began to seek a way to repair the damage. They were given their options; they could have an artificial penis constructed for Bruce or according to maverick Dr. John Money, they could remove Bruce’s undamaged testicles, and create a rudimentary vagina, give him hormones and raise young Bruce as a girl.
There were language and cultural barriers between the patients and the doctors because most of the doctors at Creedmoor were foreign-born and educated. In one instance, Sylvia referenced knowing Mary Poppins and making a movie with Don Knotts and because the doctor didn’t know these people, Sylvia was misdiagnosed. Common practices regarding the medication of patients were to put patients on multiple medications at one time, and then wean them off of them as their symptoms subsided or their side effects became worse. Because most doctors didn’t really understand how the medications worked with different individuals, this was sort of a gamble when prescribing. In Sylvia’s case, these practices probably made her illness worse, doctors didn’t know or bother to become familiar with her case history, she wasn’t given enough of medications to
Nduka Onuchukwu Shiladitya, Sen College Writing September 18, 2012 Rough Draft The Individuals Right The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks shows how an individual’s personal rights can be effortlessly breached when it involves medical science and research. Being in their position, doctors could say many things to a patient that the patient could deem true, and what was really the truth, was kept confidential to those who only studied science. “Everybody knew black people were disappearing cause Hopkins was experimenting on them!” (Skloot 169) clarified the mindset of the people, specifically Bobbette in this quote, who did not know and were kept out of the loop. The conflict of the plot, and in society at the time, is whether it wrong for a doctor to take samples from a person’s body without them knowing? It could be seen as immoral, but what if Henrietta had been told her cells were going to be used for testing?
We detest serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer who took other people’ lives but give modest or no thought about doctors festooned in scrubs who saunter up and down our hospital corridors and slay tens of thousands of innocent human beings every year. It is always said that it is the woman’s preference as to what she does with her body, but her body is not being ripped, torn, and sucked out of the womb and destroyed (Free Outpost, 2013). Abortion disannuls the plan of God and encourages sin (Melton, 1996). However, many are unperturbed about the idea of abortion and there are others who oppose the idea for many reasons. Abortion is murder and is immoral in the eyes of God Amighty and many will stand in judgment concerning the murder of these innocent people.
Volunteers that were assigned as prisoners found out about their acceptance into the experiment when they were arrested in their home or on campus by real police. Investigation into human nature followed. Prisoners experienced being degraded, all types of punishment, despair, and depression as they started to actually believe they were prisoners. Guards took their role seriously as they enforced the law and asserted power and authority. The Stanford Prison Experiment, which was supposed to last for two weeks, ended after six days when researchers realized that some of the guards were becoming very abusive and some of the prisoners were forgetting that they were not real prisoners, and that this was just an experiment.
A Response to “The Stanford Prison Experiment” In Philip G. Zimbardo’s essay, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”, he set up a fake prison in the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building with volunteer “guards” and “prisoners” to prove that inherent personality traits are primarily responsible for abusive behavior that takes place in prison environments. After reading Zimbardo’s essay, I felt very much disturbed that this experiment actually took place. The experiment was intended to last fourteen days, however the experiment went badly wrong causing some of the volunteer “prisoners” to become psychological disturbed and initially put a stop to the entire operation after just six days. This experiment caused a threat to the well-being of all those involved by means of dehumanization. The setup of this experiment was comprised of twenty-four volunteers of middle aged white men of the Harvard area whom were offered fifteen dollars a day to participate as either a “guard” or a “prisoner” which was decided randomly.
The doctor’s words were very clear. The apparent lack of emotional response during tests after her injury and the lack of mass in the frontal lobe scientifically.” He paused for dramatic effect. He continued, “According to leading research in 80% of cases and our expert witness will testify that according to her case file the best guess is that Emily Jane is suffering from either psychopathy or a violent derivative acute schizophrenia.” The world spun. The case ended with the ruling that the court could not make a decision based on the evidence. However, the jury agreed unanimously that Em-J should be held in a secure facility until a re-trial.
After the original release of “The Yellow Wallpaper” in The New England Magazine in 1891, her intent and purpose for writing this story was called into question. Several physicians protested it and claimed that it would drive people mad just from reading it. Gilman set out to explain her reasoning by describing her own experience with a doctor during her treatment for a nervous disorder. The doctor told her to life a domestic life in which she had some sort of mental stimulation two hours a day but “to never touch pen, brush or pencil ever again.” (Qtd. In Gilman.
This is because in every American mind, “the imaginary crack baby epidemic remains real”. In late 19th Century reports were published condemning the work of American Medical Association. People weren’t ready to accept the research results. They believed Cocaine using African American caused these problems. Also an organization called “CRACK” or “project prevention” were giving money to cocaine uses to get sterilized and then undergo an observation for a short period of time while receiving birth control medicine such as