Examination Of Past And Present Ethical Guidelines On Biomedical Research

The art of medicine and curing diseases was not always approached in a scientific way. In fact, many advances occurred between 1919 to 1939, after technological advances allowed scientists to apply the scientific method to medical research. At this time, the ethics of using patients as test subjects either for new medicines or as samples for further testing were not considered. An extreme example of this was the Nazi’s using concentration camp inmates – including children – to run painful and invasive experiments. More modern examples are not so easy to identify as unethical, however. While amputating a leg to develop methods to deal with fractures and war wounds is obviously unethical, harvesting cells to develop a vaccine is not so clear cut, as the disadvantage to the patient is hard to identify. Coming from the various Nazi testing and especially the Nuremberg testing and trials, another code of ethics was developed, called the Nuremberg Code.

In the context of research, ethics is defined as the systems of moral principles that guide human action (1). Ethics is the reflection of the societies ideals of what is right and wrong. It is required in order for research to be valid and published for an ethics committee to evaluate the proposed research question, design and implementations and provide approval in order for a research project to be considered ethical.

Through the ages, men have been able to find cures for catastrophic diseases through scientific research. Thanks to these advances, men have been able to prolong the life span of people, or provide better quality of life in cases in which a cure of various maladies has not been possible. To achieve such progresses, scientists have made use of prior knowledge, new theories, and technology obtaining numerous prodigious outcomes. Unfortunately, there have been many who have used questionable means for such ends. The German Max Clara is another case of a man with power and knowledge of science, who has misusing them. This paper aims to briefly identify principles and standards that would have been violated these days according to the existing APA Code of Ethics. Finally, ethical implications of making a moral judgment on past actions by researchers regarding human experimentation are discussed.

Human experimentation has always been a topic of ethical controversy, recently the draw towards this practice has become increasingly more appealing; due to the expanding medical advancements and progress within the last decade. It is obvious why experimenting on humans is an attractive option, but how far can we push these experiments before it's considered criminal and inhumane? Many medical researchers push for the use of human experimentation because of the general good that these experiments may have on not only the medical community but also the general public. However, there are many ethical questions that need to be addressed before such experiment is conducted.

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

Scientific studies are necessary acts to accelerate human development. These studies bring new insight to a wide variety of scientific disciplines. From our modern day transportation infrastructure, communication technology, and eradication of smallpox science does good for humanity. With much of life there is a dark side to everything and many scientific discoveries have stained our history with the blood of the victims. Especially in the medical field which has to experiment to find cures that can potentially save lives. Animal testing is a first, but eventually human testing will have to begin. There are many ethical question that doctors ask there self when interacting with their patience. History has shown that doctors are capable of unethical

Ethics is about what is right and wrong, the reasons one gives for the choices and action one makes, and basically “what ought we to do and why (St. Michael’s, 2018)?” Bioethics; autonomy (right to make own choice), beneficence (to do good), non-maleficence (prevent harm), and justice (fairness) play an important role in these decisions in health care (Furlong, B., & Morrison, E. E., 2014, p. 11). Healthcare

What is ethics? Merriam-webster dictionary defines ethics as: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. Ethics and beliefs are ubiquitous throughout the modern world and always arise in numerous topics, issues, and arguments. When it comes to any research processes, ethics is something that must be considered in order to benefit both the results and the people involved. When ethical issues in medical research arise, the thought of the patient is paramount; ensuring that the patient knows exactly what is taking place through informed consent, that they have the respect to autonomy and confidentiality, that they are to remain unharmed, and the most vulnerable patients have the same treatment as all other

wrong—our moral life in community. Bioethics is the application of ethics to the field of medicine and

During the Holocaust, Nazis imprisoned Jews, Gypsies, and handicapped individuals. They were slaughtered and put into gas chambers by Nazi soldiers.  One of the most sinister individuals, worse than the Nazi soldiers ever thought of being, was a doctor that rightfully got referred to by the name, “Angel of Death.” He tortured and mutilated these soon to be victims and almost every person that became his patient would die by the time he flees to save himself from the punishment that was waiting for him in the form of invading armies and government decisions. This is just one example of why ethics was created. Ethics is defined as ”the foundation of knowledge that describes right/wrong or better/worse. It applies to issues of harm/care

In the following essay I will be stating my opinion on issues surrounding medical research.

The concept of ethics in scientific research has continuously evolved over several hundred years; records of the first experiments on humans, documented in the bible, date back to 550 BC.1 Throughout history, notorious cases of scientific misconduct have established guidelines and set the precedence for the governing standards of ethical conduct today.

Ethics are moral principles of doing what is right.  It should be a foremost concern when carrying out research and experiments.  There are past examples of where failure to adhere to ethical research has led to inhumane cases such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

Ethical, as defined by Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2016), means right or wrong, or “following acceptable rules of behavior.” The primary concern for many, who oppose scientific research such as this, is the notion that the scientists are “playing god.” In other words, scientists are messing with the natural process of the world. It could even be argued that if scientists had left well enough alone, this increase in of individuals in the late adulthood stage of life would not have occurred; implying that nature or God would have naturally controlled the population. Others, like myself, might counter that it goes against God to deny the scientific gift of discovery blessed on some people; that if given the ability to aid people, then it is ones duty to do just that. Some perhaps, in the middle of the road, could simply question where we drawl the line? Referring back the definition of ethical (Merriam-Webster online dictionary, 2016), this middle of the road view, may simply propose the question on if this is acceptable behavior, in other words, what are we willing to do scientifically, for human life. Whether a person is all for scientific advancement or completely opposed, at the end of the day it is important to ask is this advancement truly beneficial to society and the people it affects? (van den

Beauchamp, Tom L., and James F. Childress. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.