Psychology Research Paper
Biomedicine could advance much faster if we abolished our rules on human experimentation in clinical trials, as Nazi researchers did. ” Despite the numerous benefits that emerge from experimenting using humans, there is a strong opposition to this practice as it results in serious negative implication. Even though most experiments using humans are involving voluntary participants, some authorities abuse their power by conducting experiments on vulnerable people such as prisoners, orphans , mentally retarded, patients of high Ii;risked illnesses, the homeless or people of poor families (Pawning, 2013) .
Doing so includes mechanizing procedures such as torturing mentally and emotionally and also demoralizing . It is considered as a crime against the humanity as it is unethical. For instance, the case of the Stanford Prison Experiment that was held in 1 971 by a psychologist named Philip Zanzibar to study the prison life (Cherry, 2013). He had then accepted 70 volunteered college students to take part by paying them $15 per day, and they we were put in a situation which they had to play the role as prisoners and guards. These students were not aware of the situation that they were to be involved in.
For 6 days, the rissoles were abused in a way such as being forced to strip naked, use plastic bags as toilet, and they were taunted and having sleepless nights. Soon, some often reacted in such depressing way such as crying or going into depression due to the aggressive treatment that the guards have given them ( Alumni. Stanford. Due, 2013) . According to Zanzibar (no date), “Only a few people were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency; obviously I was not among that noble class. Although the main idea f conducting human experiments is to benefit the human race, such as discovering new cures for newly developed diseases, treating patients, increasing the lifespan of human beings, and advancement in medical fields, it shows a disastrous negative side effects like health issues, mental problems, or even death awaits those who had participated in the human experiments as test subjects. These test subjects are exposed to harmful substances or even tested by dangerous equipments to prove theories relating to the experiments.
By exposing humans to these dreadful substances, it is creating a new disease rather than healing or overcoming sicknesses. For instance in a case where the U. S government had spread radioactive chemicals in SST. Louis as part of a biochemical test to understand better about the disperses of chemicals in the air. Many residences got sick, some even suffered from cervical cancer and died of cancers (Extending, 2012). There was also a case of proving the theory of electrocution as a treatment. Leonard R. Bank was the first ever patient that undergo electrocution as treatment (Slide, 2004).
In this process, psychiatry had records of a few changes in his personality; labeling him as paranoid schizophrenic. Also, records clarified that the shocking had destroyed large parts of his brain cells causing brain damage , memory loss and also amnesia (Slide, 2004). Later on, an Australian psychiatrist named Slake, introduced insulin coma as a cure for schizophrenia. According to Slide (2004, p. 294), cited on Rays view “Chronic schizophrenics, as with confirmed criminals, we can’t hope for reform.
Here the faulty pattern of functioning is irrevocably entrenched. Hence, we must use more drastic measure to silence the dysfunctional cells and liberate the activity of the normal cells” (1942). Therefore, human experiments threaten the health of the test subjects. The results from the human experiment can be used in the medical fields to cure diseases. However, it does not provide guarantee for the protection Of the test subjects from the government. This is because there is no law implemented to ensure test subjects are being protected.
Besides that, the experiments can be carried out by the scientists without the approval from the government which can lead to situations such as human abuse. This can be seen from the United States where human experiments are acceptable and legal in their country. The test subjects have been used in human experiments without being told about the risk involved in the experiments. For example, Lysergic acid thalidomide drugs were used to study the response of test subjects without the approval from the test subjects (Breaking News, 2012).
Some test subjects might have allergic to the drugs tested on them and serious conditions including death may occur as a result from the allergies. This serves as a bad role model for other scientists because they might follow the steps of those scientists when conducting human experiments. Also, the government does not help the test subjects to trivet for their rights and compensation when the experiments goes wrong which is crucially unfair as it is permitted by law.
Like in a case, there was a hepatitis B vaccine experiment sponsored by the United States government which gay men are injected with hepatitis B vaccine (Cantle, 201 1). The hepatitis B vaccine production was contaminated with HIVE which proves that government does not take proper safety procedure when carrying out the experiments. Curiosity of scientists could really make them go great lengths to get their questions answered and as much as information is obtained, this has also led to ruin the lives of innocence.
It has been found out that scientists use their own children as test subjects in their experiments and this has been planned even before the baby was given birth to. One reason for doing so is due to the unavailability of test-subjects. According to Deborah Linebacker (no date), “You need subjects, and they’re hard to get” The stage of being a baby is the most delicate time of a human being and having their innocence destroyed and privacy invaded since the first day of birth obviously have taken away their rights of being a human.
The children are put to different tasks each day and everything they do or see are to be corded. For example, (Anytime,2009) there was this case of Dry Sinai, a neuroscience professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who planned to use their new born baby and all his excitement was due to studying the baby and doing experiments with and on him. He even strapped a camera on the baby’s head on the first few days after Dairies,the baby was born, just because Dry Sinai wanted to find out what babies look at.
The parents who used their children in their experiments include Arthur Toga (Neurology Professor), Stephen Camera (Medical School,Vanderbilt) and Debt Roy (M. I. T). Although the scientists have claimed such experiments as ‘not obviously dangerous’, it was proved that the relationship between children and parents were no more there and it was more of a subject- researcher relationship.
Childhood Of these kids were ruined and they grew up to be emotionally and even physically disturbed as they’ve been watched as ‘objects’ and not treated as other normal humans. Most of the psychologists only concern on how the theories can be proved by using human beings as test subjects in their experiments. But experiment like sex reassignment may lead to a serious issue of opposing the human nature. It could cause the participants to misbehave. The participants might volunteer for the experiments or they do it for money, but it violates the order of nature.
Sometimes, the participants choose to hide it as a secret because they know that it is hard to get support from families and friends, as human experiment of sex reassignment goes against the human nature. Their families might get disappointed after knowing this. The participants have to face all the blames and criticism from others, and eventually they will end up in the state of being depressed or choose to commit suicide. Moreover, an individual’s way of life would have to adjust and alter based on how they’ve been turned into.
After they’ve change their sexes, they must change their lifestyles as well. David Reamer was one of the cases that shown the consequences after the sex change. He lost his penis in an accident and a psychologist suggested a sex reassignment for him. However, he had a nervous breakdown and committed suicide when he grew up (Sub-info. Org, 2013). The psychologist wanted to prove his theory about the gender could be influenced by environment and not necessary by the worm, but mislead a arson’s life and caused him misbehaved (Collocation, 2013).
