#94 – Research Ethics: The Evolution of Research Ethics

Hiiii

My day was quite calm compared to the last 4 days. I had quite a lot of rest. Sigh. Because of my rather slow-paced day, I felt (and still feel) quite unfulfilled. Reflecting on my day now, I can say that it is fine for me to have days like this. After 4 days of back-to-back hard work and sleeping for about 5 hours per night, my arm hurt from typing and writing, and I guess my body decided to take the rest I did not give it.

However, as much as I have come to terms with today’s rest, I won’t give myself the opportunity to slow down… At least for another week. This is not something I would advise you to do. It’s definitely not healthy for your body or mind. I am doing this because I have some clear (rather big) goals that I want to achieve by the end of this month, and I know that I may not have sufficient time to tackle them well in subsequent months. The last 6 months of 2022 are going to be very busy for me (I secretly love it).

BTW, it’s about time for another voicicle, don’t you think? Soon.

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My last article was about the importance of research. Today’s entry is based on session 1.2. on my TRREE course.

You would think that humans have always been conscious about morality when it comes to research. Okay, I think with our general knowledge of human nature, we would not put it past our fellow beings to throw ethical practises out the window while seeking knowledge. If you thought this, you would be right! Shocker.

Experimentations on living beings have been going on for quite a while. Human-subject experiments gained traction in the 19th century. At some point, research shifted to animal-subject, and this led to researchers questioning the need to use humans at all. This is when the question of research ethics began to arise. As discussions flew around, people began to accept human-subject research on the condition that extensive experimentation had been done on animals first. This started around the 20th century. However, outrightly unethical experiments were still being performed on human-subjects.

Research in bacteriology saw rise in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Animal and human subjects rose rapidly, and questionable experiments continued to be conducted on both species. According to TRREE,  in North America and Europe, “infectious agents were injected into orphans, mentally disabled persons, and prisoners without their consent or knowledge” (p.4). Some were even electrocuted. Flocks of those kinds of untoward experiments were also found in Africa. An example is the segregation of people who had diseases such as yellow fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, and measles just for surveillance.

One such research is the tuberculin injection experiment by Dr. Walter Reeds in the early 20th century. He injected this substance into the eyes of over 100 orphans that he got from orphanage home. Many of them were left with excruciating pain, lesions in their eyes, and permanent blindness. However, Dr. Reed did not stop and was never criminally charged for his atrocious acts. This was not for the lack of trying by many well-meaning individuals.

Human experimentation reached a very low standard and sparked outraged cries from professional bodies. One such bodies include the Prussian Minister of Religious and Medical Affairs in 1900 who proposed a guideline on human experimentation. In 1931, the German Reich Ministry of Interior released a regulation for human experimentation.

However, both were largely ignored by the medical practitioners who conducted unethical experiments.

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I have passed my 500-word limit. I’ll continue tomorrow by giving you some detail about the Nuremberg Trials.

These are 500 words (or more ?)! Talk to you tomorrow!

 

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