The Ethical Structure Behind Human Experimentation

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The Ethical Structure Behind Human Experimentation

The history of medical research in the twentieth century provides abundant evidence which shows how easy it is to exploit individuals, especially the sick, the weak, and the vulnerable, when the only moral guide for science is a naive utilitarian dedication to the greatest good for the greatest number. Locally administered internal review boards were thought to be a solution to the need for ethical safeguards to protect the human guinea pig. However, with problems surrounding informed consent, the differentiation between experimentation and treatment, and the new advances within medicine, internal review boards were found to be inadequate for the job. This led to the establishment of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission by President Bill Clinton in the hopes of setting clear ethical standards for human research.

History

Examples of unethical human research cases

The dark history of human experimentation began with the clarification between experimentation and treatment. The larger public began to notice experimenters ethical neglect for their subjects in the early 1960s. Those charged with administering research funding took note of the public furor generated by the exposure of gross abuses in medical research. These included uncontrolled promotional distribution of thalidomide throughout the United States, labeled as an experimental drug; the administration of cancer cells to senile and debilitated patients at the Brooklyn Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital; and the uncontrolled distribution of LSD to children at Harvard Medical Center through Professors Alpert and Leary. Most important was Henry Beechers 1966 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, detaili...

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...S make amends for human radiation experiments." JAMA. v274, n12. September 27, 1995. pp. 933.

Stone, Richard. "Eyeing a project's ethics." Science. v259, n5103. March 26, 1993. pp. 1820.

Watson, Russel. "America's nuclear secrets." Newsweek. v122, n26. December 27, 1993. pp. 14-19.

Williams, Peter. "Ethical principles in federal regulations: the case of children and research risks." The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. v21, n2. April 1996. pp. 169-214.

Willwerth, James. "Madness in fine print: using mentally ill subjects for psychiatric experiments too often means extracting and relying on their ill-informed consent." Science News. v144, n19. November 7, 1994. pp. 62-64.

Yeoh, C., E. Kiely, and H. Davies. "Unproven treatment in childhood oncology - how far should paediatricians co-operate." Journal of Medical Ethics. v20, n2. June 1994. pp. 75-77.

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