Case Study : Fabricating Data ( Rcr Case Study Framework

Authors Note: This paper is being submitted on the 18th of March 2013 for the winter semester of Medical Law and Ethics section 05.

This research paper is being submitted on December 8, 2011, for Mara Pehkonen’s M230 Medical Law and Ethics Course.

To ensure that a researcher’s enthusiasm for knowledge and understanding doesn’t let them get carried away, clear guidelines for ethical behaviour in research, a Code of Ethics, have been established by governments, institutions and various professional societies such as the American Psychological Association(APA), the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI).

Forester-Miller and Davis’s (1996) ethical decision-making model suggests that the initial step in resolving an ethical dilemma is to first identify the problem and then clarify the nature of the problem. This entails gathering pertinent information that will help elucidate any potential ethical issues. One important matter to reflect upon is whether this dilemma is ethical, clinical, professional, legal or any combination of the aforementioned categories (Forester-Miller & Davis, 1996). Honing in on the nature of the ethical issue will provide some direction as to which avenues are the most applicable for the given ethical situation.

For example,it say, “Before the Board of Regents announced its decision, the negative press about Southam’s work had gotten the attention of the NIH, which funded his research and required it's investigators to get consent for all studies involving humans.” Another example,it says, “Beecher published a detailed list of the twenty-two worst offenders, including researchers who'd injected children with hepatitis and others who'd poisoned patients under anesthesia using carbon dioxide. Southam’s study was included as example number 17.” These pieces of textual evidence show how NIH found Southam and other scientists were doing unethical

A 35-year-old man named Paul, who has a supportive wife and two adventurous kids, has been diagnosed with a very severe case of bone cancer for 1 year now. Since this type of cancer is so severe, chemotherapy is starting to not work as well. Paul’s oncologist unfortunately had to suggest a final option for Paul to try which was a clinical research trial. Clinical research trials are experimental studies that deem whether or not a medical drug, treatment, surgery, or device is safe and beneficial for humans to use ("National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute"). As explained in Marcia Angell’s Article, “The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World”, the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Health Organization (WHO) provides a guideline

Additionally human medical research studies often targeted those who came to public teaching institutions desperately seeking free medical treatment and who generally looked up to doctors and experimenters as experts in the field who were there to help them. While this motivation may seem logical, it is often faulty as many human medical research studies throughout history demonstrate that the motivation of medical researches is often not the care of those currently suffering from a particular condition but the future returns on the cures or medical treatments that may be discovered during the study (McKie). As with many such unethical studies, the participants often do not give consent and are not informed of known dangers to the procedure, medications or lack of treatment. The use of individuals who are poor, uneducated, and lack medical insurance in combination with prestigious university research institutions and the white coated, well-educated researchers motivated by discoveries of cures on the scientific frontier results in abuses of individuals.

The example of unethical or questionable science behavior I have decided to discuss involves informed consent. An article written in the Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology & Research describes informed consent as the process by which individuals are advised of the different facets of research, including risks, that they will be participating in that allows them to make a voluntary and informed decision as to their willingness to engage in the procedure.

An article was chosen from the University Library to evaluate the issue of unethical business research conduct. The article chose is called Flacking for Big Pharma: Drugmakers Don't Just Compromise Doctors; They Also Undermine the Top Medical Journals and Skew the Findings of Medical Research . The identification of the unethical business research involved in the article is given. The parties involved along with effected party is mentioned. The evaluation of the article also identifies how the unethical behavior affected the organization, injured party, and society. A proposition of

originate from a medical professionals mishandling of a study. This impacts the reputation of the whole medical community. Discovering

Overall, improper research creates falsified data that compromises patient safety, quality, and efficiency of care overtime, which is contrary to the desired outcomes of

Research ethics are underpinned by the value of respect for the human rights of the participants. Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2011) provide Diener and Crandall’s

The Nuremberg Doctors Trial of 1946 is the preeminent case recognizing the importance of medical ethics and human rights specifically about human research subjects. The defendants in the trials include Nazi leadership, physicians, and investigators prosecuted for conducting unethical and inhumane medical experiments on civilians and prisoners of war resulting in extreme pain, suffering, permanent injury and often death. The Nuremberg Code, borne of these trials, establishes ethical guidelines for human experimentation to ensure the rights of subjects in medical research. Herein, this writer will first identify and discuss ethical dilemmas presented in the Nuremberg case followed by three

The two cases show that, although the doctors using different ethical approach, they may end up making the same

In the case analysis of Sycamore Pharmaceuticals John Blake should come forward with the information that he has on the negative study about Osteoporin. Telling the truth is the ethical and responsible thing to do for his company and for the people using this product. This honesty may cost Mr. Blake his position within the company but will protect his reputation in the business world and could prevent legal action to be taken against him. Failure to be honest could still cost him his position and damage his reputation preventing him from finding work elsewhere. There is truth in the saying that trust is hard to earn and easy to lose and once lost even harder to regain.