Ethical Issues

1
Ethical Issues

• Ethical Behavior
• The Nuremberg Code
• IRB

2
Ethical behavior (definition)

• Behavior is ethical insofar as it follows the
  rules that have been specifically oriented to the
  welfare of the larger society and not to the
  self-interest of the professional
• To act unethically is to act unprofessionally

3
Ethical research

• There's no such thing as perfectly ethical
  research
• In fact, all research is inherently unethical to
  some degree
• This is because you're using the most powerful
  tools science has to offer in getting at truth or
  some needed change, and with your results,
  somebody's going to be proven wrong or lose out
  in the power struggle

4
Ethical research

• There's also no such thing as totally harmless
  research
• Somebody, usually your subjects, is going to be
  harmed, either psychologically, socially,
  physically, or economically
• Their privacy is invaded to get any useful
  information (why do research on the obvious,
  surface characteristics of people?), and this is
  psychological harm

5
Social Harm

• Socially and physically, we are harming them by
  taking up their time with our silly research
• Economically, we are exploiting them by not
  paying them for their contribution
• We, the researchers, will go on and become famous
  writing a book about them, but they will always
  remain lowly research subjects
• Ethically, research is just a whole awkward and
  asymmetrical situation overall.

6
Political Regulation of Research

• Historically, governments have had to put serious
  restrictions on researchers. In fact, the origin
  of codes of research ethics can be traced to the
  NUREMBERG CODE, a list of rules established by a
  military tribunal on Nazi war crimes during World
  War II. 

7
Ethical Horror Stories

• Dr. Josef Mengele (Angel of Death)
• Nazi doctor
• In the name of medical research, people were
  infected with diseases
• New drugs have been tested
• Administered poisons
• Exposed to extreme temperatures and decompression

8
Ethical Horror Stories

• Josef Mengele did a number of medical
  experiments, using twins
• These twins as young as five years of age were
  usually murdered after the experiment was over
  and their bodies dissected
• Mengele injected chemicals into the eyes of the
  children in an attempt to change their eye color
• He stitched twins together, castrated or
  sterilized twins. Many twins had limbs and organs
  removed in macabre surgical procedures, performed
  without using an anesthetic.

9
Josef Mengele

• Josef Mengele and the other camp doctors -
  masterminds of the horrors of Holocaust - were
  found to be psychologically normal
• They were men of fine standing, cultured,
  husbands who morning and night kissed their
  wives, fathers who tucked their children into
  bed

10
Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• The deliberate failure to treat a group of
  African American males in Macon County (near
  Tuskegee), Alabama who had syphilis begun in 1932
  and ended, by unfavorable publicity, in 1972

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Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• The study involved 600 black men--399 with
  syphilis and 201 who did not have the disease
• Subjects were told that they were treated for
  "bad blood," a local term used to describe
  several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and
  fatigue.
• In truth, they did not receive the proper
  treatment needed to cure their illness

12
Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• In exchange for taking part in the study, the men
  received free medical exams, free meals, and
  burial insurance. Although originally projected
  to last 6 months, the study actually went on for
  40 years.

13
Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) began using
  penicillin to treat syphilis in 1943
• Despite this effective treatment, penicillin was
  deliberately withheld from the subjects
• PHS repeatedly distributed lists of names of
  subjects to local physicians and instructed the
  physicians not to give penicillin to these
  subjects
• Aspirin was given in an attempt to discourage
  subjects from seeking treatment elsewhere

14
Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• As reported by the New York Times on 26 July
  1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was revealed as
  "the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human
  beings in medical history.
• All of the subjects died eventually
• Subjects did not suspect that no one cured them

15
Study was sponsored by government

• During the 1940s, 800 pregnant women, the poor
  patrons of a pre-natal clinic at Vanderbilt
  University, were given a "cocktail" including a
  tracer dose of radioactive iron
• The objective of the experiment was to determine
  the iron requirements of pregnant women
• Incidents of malignancies in the children of the
  women subjected.

16
Fernald School in Massachusetts (1950s)

• Experiments conducted by researchers from the
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Mentally retarded boys in the school's "science
  club" were fed radioactive calcium and iron with
  their breakfast cereal
• Boys who agreed to participate received club
  privileges, including extra milk and trips to
  baseball games and the beach.

17
University of Cincinnati (1971)

• In a long-running experiment, 88 poor, uneducated
  African-American patients with incurable cancers
  were exposed to heavy doses of full-body radiation

18
University of Cincinnati (1971)

• Experiment was sponsored by the U.S. military
• None of the subjects gave informed consent, they
  thought they were receiving treatment for their
  cancer
• Subjects experienced nausea and vomiting from
  acute radiation sickness, pain from burns on
  their bodies, and some died prematurely as result
  of radiation exposure
• Subjects were not provided palliatives against
  the side effects of nausea and vomiting because
  the researchers did not want the drugs to
  interfere with their data collection

19
Injections of cancer cells (1963)

• 22 chronically ill patients in the Jewish Chronic
  Disease Hospital case
• Objective was to learn if foreign cancer cells
  would live longer in debilitated
• non-cancer patients than in patients
• debilitated by cancer
• Research funded by American
• Cancer Society

20
Injections of cancer cells (1963)

• The subjects were not told that the injection
  contained cancer cells
• The physicians "did not wish to stir up any
  unnecessary anxieties in the patients" who had
  "phobia and ignorance" about cancer
• Hospital administration tried to cover-up lack of
  consent, and some written consents were
  fraudulently obtained after the fact

21
Other examples

• Senator John D. Rockefeller
• issued a report revealing that for at least 50
  years the Department of Defense has used hundreds
  of thousands of military personnel in human
  experiments and for intentional exposure to
  dangerous substances (mustard and nerve gas,
  ionizing radiation, psychochemicals,
  hallucinogens)

22
Cold War Experiments

• American Intelligence agencies believed that the
  Communists developed secret mind
  control/brainwashing techniques
• This explains, but does not condone, the
  following abuses

23
Cold War Experiments

• 1950s, using code names like
• Bluebird, Artichoke, the CIA, FBI, and U.S.
  military experimented with behavior-control
  devices and interrogation techniques (drugs,
  hypnosis, shock therapy, surgery, radiation) on
  unsuspecting citizens
• If death or injury occurred these agencies
  provided cover-up

24
House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee (1986)

• Uncovered that during 30 years federal agencies
  had conducted exposure experiments on American
  citizens
• Injecting plutonium, radium, and uranium
• Feeding uranium to elderly patients during an
  experiment at the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology
• Feeding patients real fallout from a Nevada test
  site
• U.S. Military employed former Nazi doctors
  /scientists for conducting the experiments

25
The Nuremberg Code

• Voluntary consent
• Fruitful results for the good of society
• Anticipated results will justify the performance
  of experiment
• Avoid all unnecessary physical or mental
  suffering
• No research should be conducted where there is a
  reason to believe that death or disabling injury
  will occur
• The degree of risk to be taken should never
  exceed that determined by the humanitarian
  importance of the problem to be solved

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The Nuremberg Code

• Proper preparation should be made-protect the
  research subjects against injure, or death
• Research should be conducted only by
  scientifically qualified persons
• During research the subjects should be at liberty
  to bring the research to the end
• Research must be ready to terminate the research
  at any stage if there is possibility to hurt
  research subjects

27
IRB

• Data Anonymous _ Confidential __
  Intentionally identified___
• If anonymous or confidential, describe how
  anonymity or confidentiality will be maintained
  (e.g., coded to a master list and separated from
  data, locked cabinet, office, restricted
  computer, etc.). List all sites where data might
  be stored.

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IRB

• Who will have access to the data? Please be
  specific_____________
• Will video tapes ___ audio tapes ___ photographs
  ___ be taken?
• If yes, where will tapes or photographs be
  stored?
• When will all research materials be destroyed?

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IRB

• How will subjects be selected or recruited and
  how will subjects be approached (or contacted)?
• Describe any potential risks to the subjects, and
  describe how you will minimize these risks.
  These include stress, discomfort, social risks
  (e.g., embarrassment), legal risks, invasion of
  privacy, and side effects

30
Social Science Experiments

• Social research might also put subjects at risk
• Three social scientific studies are cited most
  often
• Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade (1970)
• Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority (1974)
• Philip Zimbardos simulated prison experiment
  (1972-1974)

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Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Sex Study

• He stationed himself in "tearooms" and offered to
  serve as "watchqueen"
• He was able to gain the confidence of some of the
  men he observed, disclose his role as scientist,
  and persuade them to tell him about the rest of
  their lives and about their motives
• Humphreys secretly recorded the license numbers
  of their cars
• A year later and carefully disguised, Humphreys
  appeared at their homes claiming to be a
  health-service interviewer and interviewed them
  about their marital status, race, job, and so on.

32
Humphreys' findings destroy many stereotypes

• 54 of his subjects were married and living with
  their wives
• 38 were neither bisexual nor homosexual they
  were men whose marriages were marked with tension
• 24 were clearly bisexual, happily married, well
  educated, economically quite successful, and
  exemplary members of their community
• Another 24 were single and were covert
  homosexuals
• Only 14 of Humphreys' subjects were members of
  the gay community and were interested in
  primarily homosexual relationships

33
Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority

• Psychologist at Yale University, conducted a
  study focusing on the conflict between obedience
  to authority and personal conscience
• Germans are different
• Character flaw Readiness to obey authority
  without question, no matter what outrageous acts
  authority commands
• Everything in the experiment was staged except
  one person-subject
• Milgram changed a lot in his initial script
  because people were obeying too much

34
Experiment

• Learner is taken to a room where he is
  strapped in a chair to prevent movement and an
  electrode is placed on his arm. The "teacher" is
  instructed to read a list of two word pairs and
  ask the "learner" to read them back. If
  "learner" gets the answer wrong, the "teacher" is
  supposed to shock the "learner" starting at 15
  volts

35
Experiment

• The generator has 30 switches ranging from
  "slight shock" to "danger severe shock The
  final two switches are labeled "XXX
• The "teacher" automatically is supposed to
  increase the shock each time the "learner" misses
  a word in the list. The "learner" was an actor
  who was never actually harmed

36
Results

• Two-thirds of this study participants fall into
  the category of obedient' subjects, and that
  they represent ordinary people drawn from the
  working, managerial, and professional classes
• 65 of all of the "teachers" punished the
  "learners" to the maximum 450 volts
• No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts

37
Results

• The theory that only the most severe monsters on
  the sadistic fringe of society would submit to
  such cruelty is disclaimed

38
Ethical issues of Milgrams experiment

• Milgram made a judgment about there is no
  possible psychological damage to the subjects
• Milgram interviewed subjects afterwards
• 83 said they were glad to participate
• 1.3 said they were sorry
• However, Milgram could not know that only 1.3
  would be sorry

39
Zimbardos simulated prison experiment

• Subjects males, undergraduate, paid volunteers
• Role of either guard or prisoner
• Mock prison was constructed in the basement of
  Stanford university
• Experiment was to have lasted for two weeks but
  Zimbardo cancelled the study after 6 days because
  of possible harm

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What went wrong?

• Individuals became carried away with their roles
• Guards behaved aggressively and dehumanizing
  toward prisoners
• Prisoners behaved ether passively or were hostile
• Subjects did consent to participate in the study,
  but they did not expect the consequences