Healthcare research often involves the use of patients or human subjects. Research and read about the...

Healthcare research often involves the use of patients or human subjects. Research and read about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. What are your thoughts? Describe the use of research, using human subjects, and potential ethical issues.

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Expert Solution

A brief description of the experiment:

The Tuskgee Syphilis study was started in 1932. Its purpose was to study the natural course of syphilis in 600 black American males among which 399 had the disease while the rest acted as a control group. The participants were offered free medical care, meals and free burial service. The actual purpose and their underlying conditions were never informed to the participants and it went on for the next 40 years till 1972 when furious uproar over the ethics of the experiment forced it to stop.

Thoughts:

The experiment was completely unethical. Even though the participants were not forced to join it, they were given false information regarding the actual purpose. The ones who were actually suffering from syphilis were never told about it. Thus the notion of informed consent was violated by the researchers.

The second ethical issue was the withholding of treatment. Even after the development of penicillin as a much better option for the treatment of syphilis, the researchers continued the older method. They didn't even inform the patients that another method was available.

HUMANS AS A RESEARCH SUBJECT AND THE POTENTIAL ETHICAL ISSUES

Humans are needed in medical researches for the purpose of collecting and analysing data so that future (yet unknown) patients' treatment can be improved upon. This is one of the relaible ways to understand a particular condition/disease and related effects. Since living beings are involved and we have developed an ethical code regarding how humans should be treated, there are ethical issues related to the matter.

1. Informed consent : Making sure that the participant is not forced to join, has all the necessary information regarding the purpose and the course of research and has been provided with the knowledge of the potential risks and benefits of the research. This is to ensure that a participant can voluntarily and intelligently make a decision. Otherwise, they are just being fooled and put in danger.

2. Nonmalificence and Beneficence: The participants should come the no harm, be it physical, emotional or social. An experiment which harms it participants in any of the mentioned ways is akin to a criminal activity.

3. Privacy and Anonymity: Based on the results of a research, certian people or groups of people might become vulnerable for a multitude of reasons. A breach of privacy in these matters may result in emotional turnmoil for the participants.

orchestra answered 1 year ago

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