SOCI 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Sociological Inquiry, Lumbar Puncture, Sharecropping
3 May 2018
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SOCI 211 – Sociological Inquiry – Week 13
Ethics
Ethics has become much more central in research than the past
• 20- eas ago it did’t atte as uh
Tuskegee experiment (Medical)
• Study of African American share-croppers in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Started in 1932
• Studying the effects of syphilis
• Offered free medical care in exchange for being participants
• There were 201 non-syphilitic controls
• One way of monitoring was taking spinal taps (unpleasant)
o Ps were told it was a treatment when really it was a data gathering procedure
▪ They lied = Deception
• Started before a cure was found, but continued after (until 1972) ad did’t offer the
cure to the men
o 1940s – Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin (treatment)
o Many of the men were drafted by the army and would’e gotte teatet, ut
the researchers prevented this
• 1946-1948 – experiment was extended to Guatemala and 600+ people were
deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea
o Were treated for it, but were still subjected to the disease
▪ When they ifeted the Ps, the did’t ko if the teatet ould ok
it did, ut it as a test ad ould’e failed
o People were not in a position to say no – prisoners, soldiers, mental health
patients
• Ethical issues:
o 1. Failure to inform subjects
o 2. Deception
o 3. Exposure of subjects to a risk of harms
Ewen Cameron (Psychological)
• CIA funded psychological research that they thought would improve their capacity to
udestad the id otol tehiues used the “oiets, Chiese, ad Koeas
• Applied aggressive treatments to patients with a range of psychiatric conditions (e.g.
depression)
o Idea – You ould lea a peso’s eoies ad iset e otet
o Treatments:
▪ Severe electroshocks applied more frequently than usual
▪ Administering drugs that induced long periods of sleep (up to 3 weeks)
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