Conflict between Ethics and Research Paper
University of Phoenix
Conflict between Research and Ethics Paper
There are many different kinds of medical research performed. Some research may be performed on humans and some on animals. The research can consist of finding a cure for a disease to trying to figure out how to prevent the disease. One particular study was the Willowbrook State School study where they intentionally injected children with hepatitis. The study itself caused a lot of controversy. While the study caused a lot of controversy it opened up the eyes of individuals so that they could see that individuals with mental and physical disabilities have rights to.
At the Willowbrook State School where and study of hepatitis was performed on mentally and physically disabled children there was no consent from either the children or the guardian. The hospital figured that the patients were getting infected anyways so let’s just inject the patients with the disease and the disease can be monitored under controlled research conditions. Once controversy arose about the research Willowbrook closed its doors to new patients. The research team had their own wing of the hospital so they were still accepting new patient under one condition: the parents had to sign a consent form for their children to be injected with the virus. Most of the time parents had no choice but to agree because they had no means of taking care of their children.
Willowbrook State School tried to say that the experiment would benefit the patients because they would be injected with the disease under close supervision. But all in all the study did not benefit
The Willowbrook State School hepatitis study did not have any benefits to the society ethically. The only way society was benefitted is because now society is more aware of the ethics and laws for vulnerable patients. The study caused a public out poor
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