What Is The Price Knowledge :: essays research papers

What Is the 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. 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 of New York, aware of the shortcomings of procedures in place to protect human subjects. They were further concerned over the public's reaction to revealing of the research and the impact it would have on research generally and the institutions in particular. After a review the Board of Regents disapproved the researchers. They suspended the licenses of Dr.'s Mandel and Southam, but since delayed the suspension and placed the physicians on probation for one year. Another example took place during World War II. The new field of radiation science was at the center of one of the most ambitious and concealed research efforts the world has known Human radiation experiments. They were undertaken in secret to help understand radiation risks to workers engaged in the development of the atomic bomb. Following the war, the new Atomic Energy