What price knowledge. En experimentation on Humans.

Human Behavior

What Price Knowledge

I feel there is a definite need for knowledge in todays society, but

there is also a definite point when it has gone too far. It has gone too far

by conducting experiments on people without letting them know the

consequences and side effects that will place upon them. It has also

reached an extreme when the person becomes physically or mentally

impaired after the experiments . I see this treatment as both immoral

and unethical; there is no reason to harm a normally healthy person for some

advancement in scientific knowledge .

In doing research for this paper I have found many examples where

humans were used as 'guinea pigs' or killed. One example of this

misconduct was in 1959 it was a common practice for drug companies to

provide samples of experimental drugs, to physicians, who were then paid to

gather data on their patients taking the drugs.

This image was selected as a picture of the week o...

The United States Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1...

"Richard G. Hewlett opening the Bush-Conant secret...

Physicians throughout the

country prescribed there drugs to patients without their knowledge or consent

as part of this loosely controlled research. Example of this was the drug

sedative thalidomide was given to vast number of pregant women and caused

thousands of birth defects in newborn infants. Because of this event, the

Kefauver - Harris amendmants to food, drug and cosmetic act were passed

requiring informal consent be obtained in the testing of these drugs.

Another rascality research project was doctors injected live cancer

cells into underprivileged elderly patients without their permission. The

research went forward without review by the hospital's research committee

and over the objections of three physicians consulted, who argued that the

proposed subjects were unfit of giving ample consent to participate. The

revealing of the experiment served to make both officials and the Board of

Regents of the University of the State...