Ethics In Medical Experiments

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Medical ethics are considered to be extremely important in order for participants of medical experiments to be treated fairly and safely. However, medical ethics were not just something that suddenly sprang out of nowhere. Medical ethics were created from of years of discrimination and racism in the past towards those who were participants of these medical studies. These participants of these medical studies participated against their will; additionally, these participants were also part of discriminated groups such as racial minorities, the disabled and the poor as noted in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the human Nazi experiments.
The biggest example of the reason for the outcome of medical ethic was greatly in part because the human experiments …show more content…

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study that began in 1932 and ended in 1972 was a research study that had African-American men who had syphilis remain untreated for the disease to see how the disease would progress over time, according to the Belmont Report. The researchers did not tell the men who participated in the study that there was a cure available for syphilis and kept the men from getting treatment. When this experiment was exposed for its lack of ethics, it prompted the creation of the Belmont Report, which was a report on the ethical treatment of research participants in scientific research studies. This report’s basic principles were informed consent from the subjects, sharing the risks and benefits of this study and responsible and reasonable procedures is administered fairly as are the cost and benefits to the research …show more content…

Skloot describes in her book when Lacks received x-rays for her treatment, her skin was charred black and from having surgery, she could no longer have any children. Lacks stated she had not been informed about the risk that this treatment would have on her, instantly violating the Nuremberg code. Later on in the book, follow up doctors told Lacks that she was perfectly fine, although she was in pain and suffering constantly. Again, this violates the Belmont Report as Lacks did not receive her respect for her person; she was in pain but told by the doctors she was perfectly fine. Likewise, Lacks’ kin did not receive benefit from what research her cells provided. For Carrie Buck, Wray describes that Buck was sterilized against her will because of her perceived “feeblemindedness” by the state of Virginia. For Buck, her forced sterilization was without her informed consent. She could no longer bear children because of the decision of the state, not of her own

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