Human Experimentation – Is It Ethical?

2 Pages 547 Words

Human Experimentation – Is It Ethical?

There are a few ethical concerns when conducting experiments using human participants. Some people have raised the questions “is it worth it?” and “should science really be exploiting these people?” There is no easy answer to these questions. For the most part, humans can volunteer themselves for these tests. Unless, of course, their perception is blurred and they are given the wrong impression of exactly what is to take place (deception).
There are three specific concerns pertaining to a human participant’s rights. The first one is the participant’s right to privacy. A patients’s personal files need to be kept in a safe place so that the confidential test results will not get in to the wrong hands. The second concern is the possible harm or discomfort that a patient may experience due to the experimental procedures. This could include any side effects that a participant may experience or even long-term discomfort. The third concern is the use of deception. Deception refers to a research procedure used to mislead participants about the true purposes of a study. It is a dishonest practice but still does occur for fear that a participant may not volunteer for a specific experiment. Sometimes it is impossible to test a hypothesis on a fully informed patient.
Though all investigators are responsible for the well being of those who take part in their research, there are still some concerns. In response to these issues, researchers must follow guidelines established by professional organizations, university ethics committees, and government granting agencies. An example of this would be the American Psychological Association (1992), which urges its members to follow a few standard guidelines such as telling prospective participants what they will be going through so that they can give their informed consent. Informed consent is a necessity and refers to the ethical requiremen...