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Marisa Trolio 1000457640 Wednesday, October29th, 2014 SOC200H1F – L0201 Ethical Concerns of “Dr. Money and the Boy With No Penis” To understand the ways in human beings act is ultimately what all sociologist try to explain. However, the extent that scientists can go to acquire that knowledge can be extreme. There’s a line between having to acquire the knowledge for society and protecting the subject of study. Scientist encounters this line whenever they are about to embark on an experiment. “Dr. Money and the Boy With No Penis” shows the unethical ways in which a subject right as a human being is diminished in order for the experiment to be a success. The experiment displays various events in which the ethical agreements were not acknowledged …show more content…
and the experiment became the priority. Ultimately, the experiment “Dr. Money and the Boy With No Penis” was conducted in an unethical approach that was beneficial for the experiment, which in turn, lead to the harm of the human subjects Part One Ethical guidelines are placed in order for researcher’s to follow a standard of conduct that protects a subject’s mental and physical health while experiments are conducted; they outline what is right and what is wrong. In the experiment, “Dr. Money and The Boy With No Penis” ethical agreements and standards were generally ignored in order for the experiment to show success. This can be seen through the disregarded respect for the person, ignorance of the welfare of the subject, and misleading analysis and reporting. Accordingly, the neglect for these ethical issues generated harmful effects on the lives of Brenda, later acknowledged as David, and his twin brother, Brian and the production of misinformation to society. The ethical concept of respect for persons is directed towards the treatment the subject receives and the respect for their autonomy. Dr. Money’s research disregarded Brenda’s respect for persons by repeatedly disrespecting autonomy through coerce participation. In “Dr. Money and the Boy With No Penis”, Dr. Money used graphic human autonomy books, discomforting autonomy questions and forced actions in order for Brenda to fully accept a female gender role. In the documentary, the David stated “the type of questions we were asked were sexual in nature to the point where it would make me uncomfortable. It was very explicit of the sexual parts” as well as “when their parents weren’t around, we did what we were told and if not, we would be yelled at till the point where we thought we would be backhanded”. The respect for persons ensures that the subject gives continuous consent and is confortable in all aspects of human autonomy. These quotations reinforce how Dr. Money knew about the Brenda’s disturbance through his process of explaining autonomy and continued doing so without asking Brenda if it was to much; instead he scared her into participation. Hence, Dr. Money did not put any regard in respect for persons through his experiment and instead subjected Brenda to discomforting situation without consent. In addition, a concern for welfare is essential in an ethical research experiment since it looks at the quality of life the subject lead.
Dr. Money’s fixation on the success of his theory deteriorated the life of both Brenda through the oppression of Brenda’s true gender. In the documentary, Dr. Money stated it was essential for Brenda not to know her true gender and to make a point for her to behave like a female. Brenda’s mother stated, “Girls didn’t want to play with her because she wanted to play boy games and boys didn’t want to play with girls” Since Brenda was forced to act differently than her true nature, Brenda was aliened from social groups in school which, subjected her to bullying leading a troubled and lonely life. The repercussions of Dr. Money’s experiment lead Brenda to lead a life of loneness. Her well being was compromised in order for Dr. Money’s experiment to prevail. Therefore, Dr. Money’s experiment ignored the welfare of Brenda in order for the experiment to continue which lead to a lesser quality of …show more content…
life. Finally, ethical experiments base their findings on factual conclusions and make any shortcomings known to the audience.
Dr. Money falsely reported conclusions from his therapy sessions with Brenda in order for his theory to be presented correctly. In the documentary, it states, “that before he published Brenda’s case as a success, he was aware that there could be some problems ‘there is not much chance in a change of mind. She was maniacal in the way she interacted with others.’” This confirms that Dr. Money had his doubts in Brenda’s case and intentionally withheld that information from the public and told the experiment as success. His deliberate denial of information to the public shows his unethical methods and complete ignorance of the potential
shortcomings. In conclusion, Dr. Money disregarded the ethical guidelines agreed upon in the social science community in order for his theory to be successful to the world. This is portrayed through the disregarded respect for the person by not receiving consent from Brenda and disrespecting her view on the human autonomy. Also, portrayed through ignorance of the welfare of the Brenda by oppressing her true masculine nature which lead to a troubled and lonely life. Finally, this is portrayed by Dr. Money reporting misleading conclusions in order for his research to be correct. Part Two Every experiment performed follows methodological concepts in order to draw conclusions towards a theory or hypothesis. After observing Dr. Money’s research experiment, the major methodological concepts comprehended was through his idiographic approach, through the alignment of symbolic interactionism and Dr. Money’s theory of gender identity and through research motivated by exploration. While conducting an experiment, everything the scientist is trying to do is explain his/her theory. Idiographic and nomothetic explanation help social scientist explain their experiment in every day life. After studying Dr. Money’s experiment, it was clear that he used nomothetic explanation in order to convey his experiment to the world. Nomothetic explanations use one or a few cases case to explain a larger social pattern. Dr. Money took David Reimer’s case to explain how gender identity is nurtured rather than nature. He focused on this one case in order to economically explain the concept that can apply to the whole of society. Therefore, a methodological concept observed in Dr. money’s experiment was his nomothetic explanation of his theory.
Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, depicts the violation of medical ethics from the patient and researcher perspectives specifically when race, poverty, and lack of medical education are factors. The novel takes place in the southern United States in 1951. Henrietta Lacks is born in a poor rural town, Clover, but eventually moves to urban Turner Station. She was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins hospital where cells was unknowingly taken from her and used for scientific research. Rebecca Skloot describes this when she writes, “But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting sample or asked she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish” (33). The simple act of taking cells, which the physicians did not even think twice about, caused decades
The providers actively decide to deceive their patients. They spend the money the government gives them on placeboes. They tell the patients that they are receiving treatment when they are in fact not. This is compounded by the fact that initially, they believe they will get funding for treatment. Miss Evers is told that those in the study will be “first in line” for treatment when an effective treatment becomes available. The first to realize that this is not, in fact, true are the two doctors, Dr. Sam Brodus and Dr. Douglas. Ten years into the study when penicillin is show as an effective cure for syphilis they make the decision not to treat the men. At this point they are no longer doing the study to buy time until they can get treatment for the men, rather they are withholding treatment to watch the men gone through the full range of symptoms that accompany syphilis including death. Still, if the need for dead bodies to autopsy was a requirement of the studies completion and a primary indicator the success of the studies main objective, then the doctors knew from the beginning that they were not buying time until they got treatment for the afflicted men. It is possible they deceived themselves to a certain extent but it is entirely clear that they deceived Miss Evers. She believed that it would only be six months to a year until the men got treatment. Then, after that, she believed for ten years that they men would be first in line once there was a proven treatment. When this became clear it was not the case she questioned the doctors. They convinced her the study had a greater purpose aside from curing the men in it. She wanted to believe it and in many ways, she forced herself to believe it. Still, when viewing the withholding of treatment as unjust she attempted to administer treatment herself. This resulted in a patient committing suicide in a
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fictional novel dedicated to describing the life and experiences of a woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks who’s cervical cells became famous for a multitude of reasons. Henrietta was an African American woman born in the 1920’s who developed an aggressive form of cervical cancer and was treated by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her infamous story began when doctors began treating Henrietta with radium and took tissue samples from her cervix without her knowing. Cancer researchers began testing Henrietta’s cells (labeled HeLa) and found that they, unlike many other human cells, multiplied at rapid rates and almost seemed to be “immortal” or never-ending. These cells were shared, sold, and researched
The first part will also draw upon Chapter 3 of, “Fundamentals of Social Research,” and will compare Doctor Money’s research with against ethical agreements and standards that prevail in Social
But the success couldn't last. Things truly were too good to be true. As we saw, red flags were being thrown up all over the place. The evidence was growing overwhelmingly that the words being attributed to the patients were, in fact, the words of the facilitators.
In “Sociology Hesitant: The Continuing Neglect of W.E.B. Du Bois,” Dan S. Green and Robert A. Wortham describe how W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the first sociologists to conduct empirical research to specifically study human social behavior and yet, throughout history, he is rarely categorized as a sociologist. Du Bois was a well-educated black man who wanted to bring to light “the truth” in society through the discipline of sociology (Green 529). He believed that the truth could be discovered through empirical evidence, and would generate social and policy changes (Green 523). Furthermore, he thought the correct way to conduct research was by following scientific methods of physical science and studying behavioral regularities first hand, however,
A sociologist should be able to observe and understand the realities of human behavior and the social settings in which it happens without being influenced emotionally or personally.
Sociologists researchers first make ontological assumptions. That is to say, they decide what they are studying or what should be studied. They decide what the subject matter consists of and the meanings behind it. They must consider the social reality and the nature of being, in relation to the subject matter.
Throughout the first chapters, the reader learns about the struggles that young women are facing and how these girls are influenced to completely change themselves to fit into society. It is mentioned that girls change dramatically, that girls who once were talkative and bold, are now shy and timid. Dr. Mary Pipher believes that to stop
The film used outside sources like journalists and politicians to give statistics. This appeal to logic doesn’t help me accredit them because they use opinions to state an argument instead of data. When these self-proclaimed ‘experts’ are less than qualified with their professional experiences, they can pretty much say anything that they want, and we will believe them because they’re professionals and we trust that they are experts, when they don’t have a clue. Therefore, I believe that these professionals pick and choose what they can and cannot speak about. It would help if they were honest and clearer about their experience. The consequence of not being clear about their qualifications and standpoints is that the public mostly cannot know who is speaking sense and who is speaking gibberish. With such a dilemma in the United States we need people who are trustworthy; professionals that have the clinical experience and people who show that they’ve done their research, people who are
Emile Durkheim is largely credited as the man who made Sociology a science. As a boy, he was enraptured by the scientific approach to society, but at that time, there was no social science curriculum. Vowing to change this, Durkheim worked scrupulously to earn his “degree in philosophy in 1882”. (Johnson 34) Unable to change the French school system right away, Emile traveled to Germany to further his education. It was there that he published his initial findings and gained the knowledge necessary to influence the French education system. Emile Durkheim is a distinguished and well versed man who, through his work, established a platform for other sociologist to build on.
Ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss.
Social constructionism was the theory described by Joel Best that explains how things in life become controversies or problems. The ways in which society thinks about situations and uses categories to analyze events in the world structures experiences and understandings of these events. Humans look at events beyond an objectivist approach, and instead subjectively, affected by the framework in which one lives. The social constructionist theory can be used to look at the relationship between science and the people that it serves, illustrated in Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Sociologists develop theories to explain and analyze society at different levels and from different perspectives. Sociologists study everything from the micro level of analysis of small social patterns to the “big picture” which is the macro level of analysis of large social patterns.
To Quote Anthony Giddens: "Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behaviour as social beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes“(1989). Gidden’s statement describes sociology as a study that helps us understand our own behaviour as human beings in a social word. Sociologist study everything from the interaction between people in the street to the interaction between different countries. Sociologists aim to study how societies have changed over, how societies are structured and organized, the norms of society. It’s also important to understand that not all sociologists agree with each other, Sociologists often debate with one another to prove/disprove certain theories and concepts. By studying Sociology is it helps us analyze social conflicts on a micro and macro scope. Through a macro level, we can study large-scale social organization and large social categories it also examinees social processes and patterns society as a whole. We can analyze individuals much deeper on a micro level. This way we study a human by face-to face interactions. Its important as humans to understand the way our society came together and the reasons to how elements work and function together. Sociology gives us a deeper