Raine Et Al's Research And Ethical Dilemmas

Raine et al’s research into brain abnormalities in murderers which was discovered by PET scanners can be seen as being a dynamic piece of research within itself. It has many ethical issues and social implications linked to it which question the useful-ness of the study.
Raine et al’s research has been criticised for being unethical due to numerous ethical issues which arose within it in relation to the patients. One issue was the lack of confidence towards informed consent. Due to the lack of mental stability of the patients the research was questioned that the patients were not mentally stable to give consent as a result of the mental illness and medication. This led to either the next of kin or the person rightfully in charge of the patient
This is caused by the stress that the research may have caused to the patients due to lack of medication as each patient had to stop taking their drugs prior to the research, and activities which were taken place. Even though Raine made sure no patient was physically harmed to ensure protection from harm, without medication, might have caused psychological harm to patients which leads to the patients being under distress throughout and after the research which may not have happened if no research was undertaken. Another ethical issue which arose was that the patients had a right to with draw but caused difficulty to the research which prevented them to withdraw. The research was criticised for this ethic as if a patient left the study it would cause a lot of problems for Raine and his team as they would have to start the whole process again by finding a new murderer with the same mental disorder and pleads (NGRI). This has raised the question, if Raine and his team made sure the patient fully understood their right to withdraw at any time during the research and what
He mentioned that this type of brain damage is an indication of violent criminality and that lives could be saved, if people were tested for this type of brain dysfunction. In result this would have led to unfair punishment before the crime may have been committed due to the findings of brain abnormalities. Also, people will still commit murder without these brain abnormalities which Raine does not address to the public. It is stated that social factors increase the likelihood of murder in those with have a predisposition, so, if a person has been subject to many bad social factors they are more likely than others to commit murder. For example, people who grow up in urban areas, a big city witch is associated to everyday violent acts, or abuse and neglect as a child and the environment they grew up in. These social factors are a catalyst which will speed up what is already ‘going to happen’ from the pre-disposition. Furthermore, Raines research which was publicised would have been the result of prejudice and discrimination as their research suggests that everybody with a brain abnormality will be a murderer, so if the public have knowledge of someone with similar abnormalities then they will be treated much differently which is