CAS PH 251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: False Dilemma, Design Of Experiments, Syphilis
2 May 2018
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Research Ethics
Therapy v. Research: A False Dichotomy?
• Therapy – biomedical interventions that are designed only to benefit an individual or
group of individuals
• Research – scientific experiments/data gathering, which may include biomedical
interventions, intended to lead to generalizable knowledge
o Clinical Research – subjects suffer from an illness/susceptibility that the
experiment aims to develop methods to treat
▪ Important to note that these subjects will receive some benefit (can be
small or large) from this experiment
o Non-Clinical Research – subjects do not directly benefit from the experiment
▪ Overall knowledge, not to benefit individuals
• Important to ask, who benefits from research and who incurs the costs of research?
o If individuals are incurring the costs but not receiving benefits, this raises red
flags
• Why experiment on human beings?
o Alternatives:
▪ 1. Computer Simulations – pros: we can set the parameters for the
experiment and dictate what occurs & cons: how can we tell if the
parameters are the “right” ones or if they may undermine/idealize reality
▪ 2. Cell Cultures – pros: can provide a basic representation of how cells
interact & cons: will be difficult to understand how clusters react together
and therefore simulate a human body where millions of clusters are
reacting
▪ 3. Non-Human Animals – pros: there is similarity between animals and
humans in their body composition & cons: there is still much that we do
not know about how humans developed from animals as well as the ethical
issue of experimenting on animals
o Benefits:
▪ Evidence-Based Medicine
Criteria/Ethical Conditions for Experiments Involving Human Subjects:
• Must be of social or scientific value
o This is an ethical concern as failure to meet this may be a waste of natural &
human resources as well as unnecessary exposure to experimental risks
(essentially there is no justification for the risks you pose)
• Experimental design must be methodologically valid
o This is an ethical concern as invalid results and valid can lead to unnecessary
exposure to experimental risks (essentially there is no justification for the risks
you pose)
• Subjects must be selected fairly
o This is an ethical concern as it can lead to an imbalance of which individuals will
receive the majority of benefits/risks, essentially a violation of justice
o There is also concern that the methodology is undermined (which will lead to the
problems listed above)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Important to note that these subjects will receive some benefit (can be small or large) from this experiment: non-clinical research subjects do not directly benefit from the experiment, overall knowledge, not to benefit individuals. Important to ask, who benefits from research and who incurs the costs of research: if individuals are incurring the costs but not receiving benefits, this raises red flags, why experiment on human beings, alternatives, 1. Computer simulations pros: we can set the parameters for the experiment and dictate what occurs & cons: how can we tell if the parameters are the right ones or if they may undermine/idealize reality: 2. Cell cultures pros: can provide a basic representation of how cells interact & cons: will be difficult to understand how clusters react together and therefore simulate a human body where millions of clusters are reacting: 3.
