Watch 3 YouTube videos and Blog about your thoughts on ALL 3 of the videos.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Project
This video is about an infamous clinical study that the United Stated Public Health Service conducted. Practitioners promised free medical care to 400 African American men who were poor share croppers. This study was conducted to see the progression of syphilis in African American men because it was believed that it progressed differently in African Americans.
There was nothing ethical about this study. First of all these men were misled and had no idea it had anything to do with syphilis but instead it was called “bad blood”. They suffered horrendous pain that would lead to insanity and eventually lead to death. The biggest injustice is the fact that when penicillin was found to cure syphilis, the United States Public Health Service did not use it to help these men. Instead they wanted to keep this experiment going. It wasn't until 1972, 40 years after the experiment started, that it was finally exposed. In the end, 74 men lived, 28 died, 100 had related complications and 40 wives and 19 children contracted syphilis.
Clearly this is unethical in so many ways. First of all these men were never informed they were even in a study and consent was never received from the men and they were intentionally misled about receiving treatment. In today’s society this would be unheard of. Ultimately this led to the mistrust of the medical community and also the government. Nobody stepped in to stop this madness, it seems they were out for themselves and would stop at nothing to get the results they wanted from this experiment.
Judgment at Nuremberg
This movie was about a judge from American who was sent to Germany to preside over the trial of four Nazi judges who abused their powers by taking part in enforcing laws that including the killing and imprisonment of people. Judge Haywood was trying to find a deeper meaning to why these men would do such horrific acts to their citizens. Many people didn't talk about the war and the only way Judge Haywood learned more about why Nazism was taking place is what people said in court. One of the defendants, Ernst Jennings, said he participated because Hitler made promises to get Germany back on track by ridding the country of those accountable for Germany’s suffering. The Judges went along with Hitler’s inhumane approach and did nothing to stop it. So the question is why were they bystanders to this death and destruction even though they knew better. They knew it was wrong what Hitler was doing.
There is nothing ethical about this time in history. There is also no excuse that can ever justify what happened in Germany. As with the Milram Experiment, these were once normal people committing horrific acts only because they were following orders. However this wasn't an experiment, instead it is one of the most appalling times in history where people were tortured and murdered.
Milgram Experiment
This experiment was used to see if normal people would commit horrific acts only because they are following orders. This was an updated version of the same experiment that was done many years before. The participants were tricked into thinking they were the teachers. They went to another room where they were told that the student would have to answer questions and if they got it wrong they would have to push the button on the machine to shock the student in the other room. The goal of this experiment was to see if the teachers would keep going, even though they were horrified at what they were doing, because the scientist tells them to continue.
The very first gentleman is very quick to stop and refuses to continue. The second gentlemen kept stopping and thinking about it and was very open about not being comfortable hitting the buttons. He ultimately kept going as did the majority of the teachers. Over fifty percent continued to 450 volts.
I do not think this experiment is ethical because it is being conducted under false pretenses. The “teachers” are being set up and lied to. The whole process was unethical in my opinion. Clearly many of the participants were distraught about doing it, but felt pressured into continuing because the scientist came off as a very authoritative individual. Most research should be presented to the participants truthfully and should in no way put the participant in distress. The majority of the teachers were really having a hard time and at the end it is even mentioned that one of the female teachers was very distraught afterward and could not take part in another experiment.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Project
This video is about an infamous clinical study that the United Stated Public Health Service conducted. Practitioners promised free medical care to 400 African American men who were poor share croppers. This study was conducted to see the progression of syphilis in African American men because it was believed that it progressed differently in African Americans.
There was nothing ethical about this study. First of all these men were misled and had no idea it had anything to do with syphilis but instead it was called “bad blood”. They suffered horrendous pain that would lead to insanity and eventually lead to death. The biggest injustice is the fact that when penicillin was found to cure syphilis, the United States Public Health Service did not use it to help these men. Instead they wanted to keep this experiment going. It wasn't until 1972, 40 years after the experiment started, that it was finally exposed. In the end, 74 men lived, 28 died, 100 had related complications and 40 wives and 19 children contracted syphilis.
Clearly this is unethical in so many ways. First of all these men were never informed they were even in a study and consent was never received from the men and they were intentionally misled about receiving treatment. In today’s society this would be unheard of. Ultimately this led to the mistrust of the medical community and also the government. Nobody stepped in to stop this madness, it seems they were out for themselves and would stop at nothing to get the results they wanted from this experiment.
Judgment at Nuremberg
This movie was about a judge from American who was sent to Germany to preside over the trial of four Nazi judges who abused their powers by taking part in enforcing laws that including the killing and imprisonment of people. Judge Haywood was trying to find a deeper meaning to why these men would do such horrific acts to their citizens. Many people didn't talk about the war and the only way Judge Haywood learned more about why Nazism was taking place is what people said in court. One of the defendants, Ernst Jennings, said he participated because Hitler made promises to get Germany back on track by ridding the country of those accountable for Germany’s suffering. The Judges went along with Hitler’s inhumane approach and did nothing to stop it. So the question is why were they bystanders to this death and destruction even though they knew better. They knew it was wrong what Hitler was doing.
There is nothing ethical about this time in history. There is also no excuse that can ever justify what happened in Germany. As with the Milram Experiment, these were once normal people committing horrific acts only because they were following orders. However this wasn't an experiment, instead it is one of the most appalling times in history where people were tortured and murdered.
Milgram Experiment
This experiment was used to see if normal people would commit horrific acts only because they are following orders. This was an updated version of the same experiment that was done many years before. The participants were tricked into thinking they were the teachers. They went to another room where they were told that the student would have to answer questions and if they got it wrong they would have to push the button on the machine to shock the student in the other room. The goal of this experiment was to see if the teachers would keep going, even though they were horrified at what they were doing, because the scientist tells them to continue.
The very first gentleman is very quick to stop and refuses to continue. The second gentlemen kept stopping and thinking about it and was very open about not being comfortable hitting the buttons. He ultimately kept going as did the majority of the teachers. Over fifty percent continued to 450 volts.
I do not think this experiment is ethical because it is being conducted under false pretenses. The “teachers” are being set up and lied to. The whole process was unethical in my opinion. Clearly many of the participants were distraught about doing it, but felt pressured into continuing because the scientist came off as a very authoritative individual. Most research should be presented to the participants truthfully and should in no way put the participant in distress. The majority of the teachers were really having a hard time and at the end it is even mentioned that one of the female teachers was very distraught afterward and could not take part in another experiment.
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