Prisoners Should Not Be Allowed For Research Essay

Proceedings of The National Conference On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2009 University of Wisconsin La-Crosse La-Crosse, Wisconsin April 16 - 18, 2009

Although prisoners give consent, I don’t believe many are voluntarily giving consent, but are being forced to or being persuaded into giving consent since they have free time and require little compensation (Nelson Merz, 69). I do not believe it is right to make a prisoner do something he does not want to do just because there is a subject needed for research. Also, prisoners may give consent to have a little freedom from their everyday environment. “Special concerns arose in the aftermath of Nazi medical experiments during World War II, which resulted in the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki” (Raab). The Nuremburg Code was brought upon to protect the prisoner subjects from harm and to give them protection from being forced to consent in research. It also protects prisoners from being a population that is turned to for experimental subjects in research. The poor population will easily give consent to a research experiment because they will easily get money due to their voluntary role in the experiment. Although the money compensation sounds great to the unfortunate populations, there is no concern, other than money, or thought put into the overall experiment outcomes. They participate in the research, but do not take into consideration the down side effect it may cause. During a research, there are many people who did not know that giving consent to a research also meant that

Right now in the United States of America murderers, rapists, and child molesters are being set free. Prisoners are watching T.V., eating a meal, and using exercise equipment while law abiding citizens are starving and living in the gutters. Prisoners even have their own periodical. Dangerous criminals are walking the streets and crime is a way of life to many Americans. In America, crime does pay because our nations prison system is not working.

Prison inmates should be allowed to take college courses because an education offers a positive change for their release back into society. The education they receive will offer life skills and provide them with positive reinforcement to change their lives for the better; while restructuring the way some think and continue through life and society through making proper choices and better role models.

I feel particularly angry about this situation because I believe that the inmates felt obligated to do the testing. Also, the ones performing the experiments did not inform the inmates of what they were being experimented with therefor the prisoners could not make an informed decision. It also angers me

In some cases, inmates are not informed of the risks that could occur during an experiment. In 1951 and 1974, the University of Pennsylvania conducted a research study that, “deliberately exposed prisoners to dangerous and toxic substances without informing them of the attendant risks” (Talvi). As a result, many complained of psychological trauma and physical illness. Usually, scientists are more consumed with their achievements in medicine than with the lifelong effects it could have on individuals. The ex-prisoners, “now in their fifties and sixties...suffer from breathing problems, gynecological complications, and all manner of skin rashes and infections” as a result of medical experimentation (Talvi). These incarcerated people would not have given consent to be experimented on if they knew what the research fully consisted of. I believe that it is highly important for people to advise their subjects of all the possible risks of a study, so it does not lead to unfortunate circumstances, like lawsuits for the experimenter or psychological trauma for the

Looking at the legal side of things, we can call upon tort law. “A tort is a civil wrong, other than a breach of contract, committed against a person or property for which a court provides a remedy in form of action for damages” (Pozgar, 2103). Although these people being experimented on are in fact prisoners, they are still human beings and deserve respect for human rights, “The fourteenth Amendment of the United States states that all citizens should have equal protection rights” (GPO). These prisoners may have been sentenced to death, but it shall be done humanly. The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that "cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted" (Walker). Medical experimentation that can lead to one’s death defiantly fits the bill for cruel and unusual punishment. Medical experimentation against prisoners on death row also violates the principle of Proportionality for Retributive Justice. This essentially means that the punishment must fit the crime. They are

Communities should have the right to be informed when convicts are released from prison especially the victims who were the most affect by the crimes should be informed especially victims of rape. Upon the release of some offender of sex crimes they are to be put on the register when they return to the community. (Community Notification Laws (Megan's Law), n.d.). The information about the release should not be completely publicize like on the new or in the newspaper it should simply just be on the prison or jail site that if people wanted to known or just look at could who is being released that day or during that week. For the victims of the crime they should be informed individually with a simple phone call from the prison or the police

After 90 years of experiencing the whirlwind of emotions that is life, is it so much to ask for one simple request at the end of one’s life? The last wish of a person’s life can often be overlooked as a component of the dying process. However, having their last desire fulfilled is extremely significant for most people. After living for a long time, one earns the right to die the way they want. Moreover, even the people who have committed the most heinous crimes, the inmates on death row, can choose their last meal the night before they are executed. If the worst criminals can choose what to do with their last minutes on earth, so should everyone else. In short, it should be mandatory that everyone who is about to die have their last wish fulfilled.

\When you see prisons and the results of having prisons and the effects prisons put on society as a whole do you ever realize how unnecessary they are? We as being sociology majors have began to see the injustices that are within our criminal justice system. We tend see the overrepresentation of blacks and Latinos in the American prison system. In fact the prison was in fact built to keep people of color “in check.” According to Davis it’s like the new age of slavery. The same criminal justice system that we rely on to help keep us safe and protected is the same system targeting people of color, arresting them for petty crimes, and are being sentenced to and obscene amount of time in prison.

The unethical research that I researched was the Stateville penitentiary malaria experiments. During world war ll, malaria research was being conducted on prisoners in the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois. The military-sponsored research project allowed malaria experiments to be conducted on encouraged volunteer prisoner-subjects. The prisoner-subjects were being infected with malaria for the purpose of testing the efficacy and safety of novel anti-malaria drugs. To qualify for the experiment, the prisoners must be in good health, must serve more than 18 months and had no previous exposure to malaria. The prisoners were made into reservoirs for the disease and they provided a food supply for the mosquito cultures. Not only were the prisoners

The ethical theory of utilitarianism and the perspective on relativism, of prison labor along with the relativism on criminal behavior of individuals incarcerated are two issues that need to be addressed. Does the utilitarianism of prisoner’s right laws actually protect them? Or are the unethical actions of the international and states right laws exploiting the prison labor? Unethical procedures that impact incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, the relativism of respect as people and not just prisoner’s; the safety of all inmates and correctional staff, are all issues worth continuous reflection.

Would you want your pet to be used in experiments? I know I wouldn’t. I couldn’t stand the thought of my puppy, Justin, being tortured by scientists. Being restrained to be burned, cut, have wires implanted into his brain, his spine being crushed, given no painkillers when undergoing surgeries, and being killed in the process. It’s torture and it needs to stop because these animals have no voice. They don't have the ability to speak up for themselves and tell us what they want to be done. Animals should not be used in experiments because they are very unnecessary, animals are being held against their will in labs during experiments, and animals are abused by scientists.

While lawful incarceration deprives prisoners of most of Americas Constitutional rights, they do maintain a few constitutional rights. Federal courts, while hesitant to impede with the internal administration of prisons, will interfere to rectify violations of the constitutional rights that prisoners are still entitled to. A prison guideline that oversteps on a prisoner’s constitutional rights is lawful only if it is reasonably related to the safety of the inmates or the rehabilitation of that prisoner.

The UK has been accused of breaching the European Convention of Human Rights Article 3 of protocol 1 by having a blanket ban on prisoners voting. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) promotes the idea that convicted prisoners should be allowed to vote and have a right to vote, despite the Conservative party being opposed to this view. As a result the ECHR have being pressuring the Tory’s to bow to their rules for many years. This essay will examine the history behind the debate of prisoners voting and, give reasons in favour of the ban and opposing to the ban, whilst strongly promoting the view that prisoners should not have the right to vote.